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in which the Lord has led me, and can see that it has abounded with mercies!"

To his disconsolate partner he said, "I die, but God will be with you he is able to make all grace abound towards you, to support you, and raise you up kind friends and helpers!" He spake with great confidence, and repeated to her many encouraging promises; exhorting her to submission to his sovereign will. To his children he said, in the language of David to his șon Solomon, “ Know thou the God of thy fathers, and serve him with a perfect heart. If thou seek him, he will be found of thee; but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off for ever. Receive it as the dy ing advice of your aged father: choose such companions as fear God. I have found such a blessing through life; the Lord has been the guide of my youth, and the support of my declining years! I have found the ways of Religion to be the ways of pleasantness and peace; there fore be stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord; forasmuch, as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord."

His son reminding him that his labour had not been in vain, he replied, "When we come to our journey's end, we must say, we are improfitable servants. Although it is some pleasure to think we have not been altogether useless, as cumberers of the ground, our services are imperfect, and need washing in the blood of Jesus. Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost." Then, being very low, he said, I must lie down: I am a poor useless creature, my flesh and my heart are failing; but I trust God will be the strength of my heart and my portion for ever!??

On Sabbath morning, his son of fering to go and inform a near relation of his state, he replied, "Lose not one moment of the Sabbath, they are precious moments! I bless God I have enjoyed my Sabbaths un

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His daughter replied, Father, I think you can say more than that: you can say, He is my strength and righteousness.' He said, Yes; it is many years since I committed my all into the Lord's hands; and I know in whom I have believed!! shall soon sleep in Jesus: his presence is here, he is here to bless ine! I have "a mortal paleness on my cheek, but glory in my soul!"

About two hours before he died, he was in great agony of body and mind; it appeared that the enemy was permitted to struggle with him; and, being greatly agitated, he cried out, Ye powers of darkness, be gone!" This, however, did not last long: the prey was taken from the mighty, and the lawful captive de livered," although he was not per mitted to tell of his deliverance, but lay quite still and composed. When his daughter, endeavoured to place his head in a more easy posture, he gave her a significant look, and thanked her for her love, which was the last time he spake distinctly, according to his repeated wish, that the last act of his life might be an act of gratitude. He appeared to retain his scuses whilst his soul res mained in the clay tenement ; but, sinking gradually, he at length took his happy flight into the mansions of celestial bliss, to be for ever with the Lord.

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The remains of Mr. Robinson were interred at Elim Chapel, Fetter Lane. The funeral was attended by the Committee and the Children of the School; to whom a very suitable and impressive address was delivered by the Rev. R. Winter, of New Court; who also, on the following Lord's Day, repeated the tribute of friendship by an appropriate dis course, from 1 Cor. xv. 58.

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REVIEW OF RELIGIOUS PUBLICATIONS.

Dialogues, Letters, and Essays. A. Fuller, 12mo, 3s. 6d.

By eternal hereafter. If we relinquish this, all beyond the grave is uncertainty, and our attention will of course be confined to the transitory concerns of a few revolving suns. The conclusion of those who doubt the resurrection ever has been, and will be, "Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die." But believing in the Scriptures of truth, immortality opens to our view. This is the seed-time, and eternity the harvest. All that is known of God, and done for him in this life is preparatory to the joy that is set before us.

BUT few of these Essays are original. Many of them have appeared in this and other Magazines; and the admirers of Mr. Fuller will thank the editor for collecting and preserving them. The latter part of the volume is new, and of much interest. The Dialogues (though Mr. Fuller's forte does not lie in that species of composition) contain a good compendium of the different opinions among Calvinistic writers, on the subjects of Imputation, Substitution, and Particular Redemption; and is written with much candour, nice discrimination, and good sense. James speaks the sentiments of the author; and Peter those of the

late excellent Mr. B. between whom there were some shades of difference in opinion; and John is Moderator.

The Meditation on the Nature and Progressiveness of the Heavenly Glory, is written in Mr. Fuller's best manner; and, without departing from the simplicity of the Scriptures, or attempting to be wise above what is written, gives a rational and clevated view of the glories of the heavenly state; from which we shall give the introduction, by way of specimen :

"One of the leading characteristics by which the religion of the Bible is distinguished from those systems of philosophy and morality which many would impose upon us in its place, is, that every thing pertaining to it bears a relation to cternity. The object of all other systeins is, at best, to form the manners; but this rectifies the heart. They aspire only to fit men for this world; but this, while it imparts those dispositions which tend more than any thing to promote peace, order, and happiness in society, fixes the affections supremely on God and things above.

"That such should be the exclusive property of revealed religion is not surprizing, since it is this only that assures us of the existence of an

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To this affecting theme, fellowChristians, let us bend our attention. Would we be heavenly-minded, we must think of what Heaven is. Would we set our affections

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things above, we must know them, converse with them, and perceive their superior value to things on the earth. It is true, we can comprehend but little when all is done.

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is a weight of glory, which, if let down upon our minds in our present feeble state, would overset them. It did not appear, even to an inspired apostle while upon earth, what believers would be; but if we can only obtain a few ideas of it, a glimpse of glory through the breaking of interposing clouds, it will more than repay us for the utmost attention. What pains do men take, by artificial mediums, to descry the heavenly bodies! Every discovery, whether real or imaginary, is to them a source of rapture and delight! Yet they expect no possession in these supposed worlds of wonder. It is not the object which they discover, but the act of discovery, which, by giving birth to a momentary fame, is their reward; and shall we be indifferent towards those blessed realities, in which every thing that we discover is our own, and our own for ever?"

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The Old Testament illustrated; being an Explication of Remarkable Facts and Passages in the Jewish Scriptures, which have been objected

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WE are well pleased with the plan of this little work, so far as it goes to answer objections, and bring young people to a better acquaintance with the Bible; but we object much to its execution. The author indeed claims no higher rank than that of a compiler. Many of his extracts are learned and judicious, and are selected from works not easy of access to common readers; but we

object strongly to the following particulars. 1st, He introduces objections which arise, not from any difficulty in the text itself, but from the laboured attempts of infidel minds to perplex it. 2dly, He is not content with giving the most natural solution, but usually adds many absurd and contradictory ones, which involves the reader in more perplexity than they find him, e. g. not satisfied with the casy and obvious solution, a supernatural protraction of the light at the word of Joshua, we are led into a maze of enquiries rejative to the Phenician and Chinese History, a philological disquisition on figurative language; and, lastly, are left with the cold consolation, that perhaps the text itself may be interpolated!

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3dly, This leads us to remark, that the solution itself is often as much tainted with infidelity as the objection: for instance, when the knot is cut by supposing the text interpolated, or resolving a plain historical phrase into a strong eastern figure! This method of trifling with Scripture is certainly dangerous, and would not be tolerated in the works of any profane author of antiquity: it also sets aside completely the inspiration of the Old Testament; in which indeed Mr. Parker himself seems to place very little confidence.

The public will farther judge of the tendency of this work, when they learn that many of the extracis are taken from Dr. Priestley, Dr. Geddes, and other Socinian writers, who, though certainly learned and acute, are by no means to be commended for their attachment to the simpli city of Scripture truth.

Demonstration of the Existence of God, from the Works of Nature. Translated from the French of Francois Auguste Chateaubriand; and dedicated, by Permission, to the Lord Bishop of Landaff, by Frederic Shoberl, 12mo, price 3s.

THIS volume, the translator informs us, comprizes only a small portion of a work which appeared in Paris, in the year 1802, under the title of The Genius of Christianity. The sensation it produced in France was almost unprecedented. Some of the first critics of that country of this display of the author's abili. warmly expressed their admiration ties; while the philosophic party exerted all the efforts of ridicule, irony, misrepresentation to depreciate M. Chateaubriand in the public opinion. Their censures, however, produced effects the reverse of what they intended. Many were induced by curiosity to peruse a work which was treated with such acrimony; and seven editions, printed in the short space of two years, sufficiently bespeak the estimation in which it was held, in the most sceptical country in Europe.

This abstract is very neatly printed. The accounts given of the universe, the organization of plants and animals, the songs of birds, their instinct and migrations, together with various interesting anecdote, render it a pleasing and entertaining volume. It comes also highly recommended by the respectable prelate to whom it is dedicated, who

observes

of the original work, "That it is calculated to enlarge the views of the ignorant, to arrest the attention of the thoughtless, to give an impulse to the piety of sober-minded men; and that there are passages in it which emulate the cloquence of Bossuet."

A Brief Enquiry into the True Na

ture of Schism: intended to prove that Protestant Dissenters are unjustly charged with it. By the Rev. Matthew Henry, Author of the Exposition on the Bible: 12mo, rice 4d.

THE outcry of Schism! schism ! has lately been rived, with nearly as much violence as in the days of

Dr. Sacheveril. It has been taken For granted, by some who ought to have known better, that all persons, however orthodox and devout, who worship God in any other places, or by any other forms than those of the Established Church, although allowed and protected by the laws of their country, are vile schismatics, and guilty of almost an unpardonable sin; at least, poor souls! they are left, as a certain archdeacon will have it, "to the uncovehunted mercies of God !"

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The excellent Mr. Matthew Henry lived in a day when the same uncharitable censures were passed upon Dissenters in defence of whom he published this small tract; which is now scarcely to be met with, except in the folio collection of his works.

It is now reprinted, at the request of some respectable ministers and others, that it may expose the injustice and folly of the change.

Mr. Henry particularly enquires into the meaning of the word SCHISM

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in the New Testament, where it occurs eight times;, and then shews in what schism really consists. The practices which are properly schismatical are, Judging and demning those that differ from us in little things;-laying a greater stress upon smal matters of difference than they will bear, and widening the breach about them; concluding hardly as to the spiritual state of those who differ from us, excluding them out of the church, and (in our idea) from salvation, because they are not just of our mind in every punctilio. —All kind of persecution is schismatical; separation from the communion of those who have been joined to without cause; and an affected distance from those who differ from us." From which he infers, "That if this be schism, then no human power can make that separation to be schismatical which was not so in itself: that the guilt of it falls on particular persons; and is not to be charged by wholesale, upon parties of any denomination; and that there may be schism when there is no separation of communion."

To which the editor of the tract adds, "That not they who separate, but they who cause the se

paration, are properly the schisma tics, by imposing, as terms of com. munion, things which Christ has not warranted, and which are not essential to Christianity."

The whole is written with that. candour for which Mr. Henry was distinguished, and is very seasons ably republished, when so many severe and uncharitable things are said and written against Protestant Dissenters.

Religious Tracts. By the Author of 1 the Twin Sisters, gd.

be the production of a young lady. 13 The Character of a Christian; 2, On the Expiatory Sacrifice of Christ; 3, On the Works of the Creator; 4, On Errors; 5, On Forgiveness 6, On Faith. We are happy to say that these pieces are strictly evangelical; and that the talents of this Juvenile writer are by no means despicable. We hope she will proceed in this kind of composition; and that her productions will find a rapid and extensive circulation, and be made a blessing to those who are ignorant and out of the way."

THESE tracts we understand to

The Spirituality of the Divine Es

sence: a Sermon preached before the
Associated Ministers and Churches of
Hampshire, Sept. 24, 1806. By J.
Styles, 8vo, Is.

To form a proper judgment of this sermon, the reader should be informed that it was delivered on a subject allotted to him by the Association before whom it was preached, and intended as the first of a series of discourses on theology. This is proper to be remarked, to bar the charge of presumption in a young man in chusing such a subject and before such a congregation, while, at the same time, the appointment shews the opinion his brethren entertained of his abilities, and the discourse itself, which is now before us, sufficiently justifies their choice.

The Christian reader will readily anticipate the text, "God is a Spirit;" from which the preacher proposes to explain the doctrine, to establish its truth, to exhibit its importance, and to enforce improvement. In the

first part of the discourse, he judici busly avails himself of the labours of Charnock, Saurin, and other able writers; and properly discriminates between the Supreme and all other spirits. Under the second head, he reasons from the existing universe, the divine perfections, and the word of God. The importance of the doctrine is argued from the exalted idea it gives of the divine perfections, its tendency to destroy idos latry, and its effect in describing the nature of acceptable worship: "God is a pirit; and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." The application is properly made, both to saints and "sinners. We shall transcribe part of the concluding paragraph :

"Lastly, How ought we to value a Redeemer, who is the image of the invisible God, and who has declared him to us! "No man hath seen God at any time: the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him." The dazzling glories of an absolute God would overwhelm the mind; but these glories are softened and adapted to our capacities in the person of the incarnate Jesus. When we think of God in relation to us as an infinite Spirit, we naturally ask, How is He, before whom angels veil their faces with their wings, how is he to hold converse with sinners? and, How is he, who is purely a spirit, to communicate the knowledge of his glories to creatures, clothed in a corporeal substance and surrounded by material objects ? The difficulty is at once obviated by the constitution of Emanuel, God with us. The Father of our spirits knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust, he therefore commissioned his only begotten Son to take our nature upon h; and thus in a human frame,

he appears the model of Jehovah,--before him Terror flees away; and that which would otherwise confound, now allures."

In a note to this sermon the author informs us, the Lord's Supper was administered on the occasion; and gives us the substance of a beautiful Address, delivered by Mr. Bingham," the pious and ingenious author of the Triumph of Truth,"

an Essay on the Evidences of Christianity, which, though long since printed, has never properly been published to the world, and is not known in any proportion to its merits.

A Sermon, occasioned by the Decease of the Rev. Thomas Towle, B. D. by W. Kingsbury, M. A.; and the Address at the Grave, by the Rev. John Kello. Price is. 6d.

MR. Towle Was a Dissenting minister, of the Independent denomination, and was pastor of a church nearly fifty-nine years. He is represented by Mr. Kingsbury, his intimate friend, as a laborious preacher (that is, in the preparation of his sermons) as distinguished by his excellent gift in prayer; his strict attention to the discipline of the church; his firmness in asserting and defending what he considered the cause of truth; and his exemplary patience under the most agonizing pains of bolly. He is proposed as a pattern to young ministers in his exact manner of apportioning his time, and in his punctuality in keeping his engagements. He is also

commended for the respect he entertained for those who freely spoke their opinion concerning himself, even when it was unfavourable: a trait certainly to his honour, for it is well known how freely he used to speak against Methodistical persons and practices. He was allowed, however, by all who knew him to be a good man; and we doubt not that the text on which this discourse is founded, might be suitably applied to him: "For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." For about twenty years of his long life (for he died at the age of eighty-three) he was afflicted with the stone, and for twenty-one months confined to his bed; but he was never heard to murmur against God; and though his spirits were at times greatly depressed, yet he habitually professed his steady reliance on Christ.

The reflections of Mr. Kello, at the grave of "a fellow-creature, a faithful friend, an affectionate relative, and a faithful and able minister of the gospel of Christ," are very sensible, pious, and appropriate.

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