Macdonald, mentioned by Dr. Johnson in his | thodist teacher; "He will soon," said she, Journey to the Hebrides, p. 167, who was "by great humility become the head of a sect served with a plentiful meal of salt meat; and damn all the rest of the world in the very and, when thirst made him clamorous for spirit of charity." drink, a cup was let down to him in the dungeon, which, on lifting the cover, he found to be empty! MACHIAVEL'S OBSERVATION. It is observable, that Machiavel employs a whole chapter designedly, to prove, that revolutions in states are often presaged by prodigies, the causes of which he professeth himself unable to assign; unless they may be attributed to some spirits and intelligences in the air, which give the world notice of such things to come. See Machiav. Disput. 1. i. c. 56. MAHOMET VIEWING DAMASCUS. 2. The Scriptures mention an assurance of faith, which our church, in her homilies, calls " a sure trust and confidence that our sins are forgiven," &c. The methodistical assurance is an internal feeling, an assurance of sense. Now faith and sense are quite different things. In the one case, the assurance is an inference drawn from the divine promises applied to ourselves; in the other, it is an immediate operation of the spirit, a kind of revelation made nobody knows how, and of which we have no evidence but the person's own assertion. 3. An ingenious French author (Boursault) speaking of the humility of the Friars, and the manner in which it is made to serve their The Arabian false prophet, viewing the interest, says, they are like pitchers, which delicious and pleasurable situation of Damas-toop only in order to get filled. cus, would not enter that city, but turned away from it with this exclamation: "There is but one paradise for man; and I am determined to have mine in the other world." mutatis mutandis, how becoming this for a Christian in time of temptation!-See Maundrell, p. 121. MARRIAGE. 1. Vincent le Blanc, in his Travels, p. 386, tells us, that in three instances, within his own knowledge, an emerald discovered the incontinency of its wearer, by breaking, when worn in a ring upon the finger. "Such," says he, "is the virtue of this stone, if it be good and fine, and of the old mine." -It is a pity but that there was an emerald of the old mine in every wedding-ring. 2. When the subject of catechising was before the synod of Dort, one of the Swiss deputies told the synod, that the custom in his country was, for all parties intending matrimony to appear before their minister, who examined them as to their proficiency in their catechism, having power to defer the marriage till it was such as he could approve. "I was much affected to this course," says Hales, "when I heard it; and the synod shall be ill-advised, if they make no use of it." Letters to Sir D. Carleton, p. 11. MEMORY. One considerable step towards remembering things worth remembrance, is to forget things which are not so. METHODISTS. 1. A friend of mine having asked a lady of piety and judgment her opinion of a Me MIDDLETON (DR.) "My attention to the classics," says Middleton, "has made me very squeamish in my Christian studies." The doctor seems to have been in the case of the comet mentioned by Dr. Zach, p. 6, of a paper delivered to the University of Oxford, when he was admitted to a degree there, in Feb. 1786. "The retardation of the comet, compared to its period, may clearly be put to the account of the attraction and perturbation he has undergone in the region of Jupiter and Saturn." MIDDLETON AND HOADLEY. There was a very scarce book supposed to be written with force against miracles. Middleton had long searched for it in vain. Hoadley was in possession of a copy, and furnished him with it. "You are a wicked man," said he, "and will make a bad use of it. Perhaps I ought not to give it to you. But-theretake it, and do your worst." This anecdote is in the Bodleian library, as I have been informed by a friend. MINISTRY. 1. "I hope my younger brethren in the ministry will pardon me," says Dr. Doddridge, "if I entreat their particular attention to this admonition-not to give the main part of their time to the curiosities of learning, and only a few fragments of it to their great work, the cure of souls; lest they see cause, in their last moments, to adopt the words of dying Grotius, perhaps with much greater propriety than he could use them-Proh! vitam perdidi operosè nihil agendo!" Fam. Expos. sect. 14. The doctor does not refer to his authoriiy for this anecdote: but his | So speaks Wisdom to her children, as admonition is most excellent. See the whole well as Cyrene to her son Aristeus, Georg. improvement. See also Fam. Exp. vol. i. iv. 411.-To accomplish this work happily, sect. 14, where another anecdote is mentioned celestial influences are necessary, which are of Grotius; but the author, from whom I took conferred in one case, no less than in the it, did not cite his authority. On the subject other: of the above admonition of Doddridge, see Hæc ait, et liquidum ambrosiæ diffundit odorem, Norris's Conduct of Human Life.-See Dod-Quo totum nati corpus perduxit; at illi dridge's Sermons and Tracts i. 264.-Ques- Dulcis compositis spiravit crinibus aura, nel on Tit. iii. 9. a proper text for a sermon Atque habilis membris venit vigor. on the subject. This said, with nectar she her son anoints, 2. It often happens to the teachers of phi-Infusing vigor through his mortal joints: losophy and religion, as it did to Dr. Solander Down from his head the liquid odors ran; on the mountain. "You must keep moving," He breath'd of heav'n, and look'd above a man. Whoever says the doctor, "at all events. DRYDEN, 599 sits down will sleep, and whoever sleeps will 6. With regard to men's principles, we wake no more." Yet he himself was the should always put the best construction on first who found the inclination against which dubious cases, and treat those as friends to he had warned others, to be irresistible, and Christianity, who are not avowed and deinsisted upon being suffered to take a nap, clared enemies. By so doing, we may perhaps though he had just told the company that to save a person from really apostatising; his sleep was to perish. See Hawkesworth, i. 48. doubts and prejudices may be overcome; and 3. "Reason ought to direct us," says lord what was wanting in him may be perfected. C., "but it seldom does. And he who ad- But, if we suppose and treat him as an dresses himself singly to another man's reason, enemy, we take a ready way to make him without endeavoring to engage his heart in one, though he were not such before. Behis interest also, is no more likely to succeed sides that the addition of a new name, than a man who should apply only to a king's especially if it be a name of eminence, to the nominal minister, and neglect his favorite." catalogue of infidels strengthens that party, The illustration is just and beautiful; and the and weakens the faith of many, who build it observation deserves the notice of every one, on authority. "He that is not against us, is whose employment is to win men to faith on our part." Mark, ix. 40.-See Doddridge and righteousness. Dry reasoning, though in loc, and see Life of Sir Thomas Brown, ever so solid, will not do alone. See Letters, by Johnson, ad fin. II. 54. cxxix. 4. Apply to a faithful and vigilant clergy -Nunquam, custodibus illis, -Who for the fold's relief 5. Original corruption appears in as many different shapes as the fabulous Proteus of the ancients, while it exerts itself in the different passions of sinful men, transforming them, for the time, into various kinds of beasts.- Tum variæ illudent species atque ora ferarum, Various forms assume, to cheat thy sight, 7. Happy the minister, whose days are spent in teaching heavenly truths; his nights in acquiring the knowledge of them, by study and devotion ! Et quantum longis carpent armenta diebus, 8. The necessity of a kind and gentle manner in him who instructs or reproves another, and the sad effect of a contrary temper, are well set forth by Jerome Nihil est fædius præceptore furioso, qui, cum debeat esse mansuetus et humilis ad omnes, diverso torvo vultu, trementibus labiis, effrenatis convitiis, clamore perstrepitat: errantes non tam ad bonum retrahit quam ad malum suâ sævitiâ præcipitat. Cited by Dieterich, i. 33.Nothing is more unseemly than a passionate instructor; who, when he ought to be an example of gentleness and humility to all, is distinguished on the contrary by fierce looks, trembling lips, intemperate noise, and unbridled revilings. Such a man does not by persuasion recall to righteousness those who wander, but by harshness precipitates them into evil. 9. A Christian (a minister especially) | should live and act with that disposition for which George Grenville is celebrated by E. Burke." He took public business not as a duty which he was to fulfil, but as a pleasure he was to enjoy; and he seemed to have no delight out of this house, except in such things as some way related to the business that was to be done within it." Speech 25. The sentence preceding is-" With a masculine understanding and a stout and a resolute heart, he had an application undissipated and unwearied." 2. The mind, that has been subject to the fires of wantonness, becomes, like wood burnt to charcoal, apt upon every occasion to kindle and burn again. 3. A bone that is calcined so as the least force will crumble it, being immersed in oil, will grow firm again. Thus, in the figurative language of Scripture, the bones which by sorrow and affliction for sin are "burnt up as it were a firebrand,” by pardon and grace are restored to their strength, "flourish, and are made fat." 10. Mrs. Siddons, the famous actress, receiving many invitations to the houses of the great and opulent, excused herself from 4. Some persons, who have a great deal of accepting any of them, because her time was sharp and pungent satire in their tempers, do due to the public, that she might prepare not discover it unless they are highly proherself in the most perfect manner to appear voked; as in the evaporation of human blood before them, for their entertainment.-When by a gentle fire the salt will not rise. a clergyman is invited to spend his hours at card-playing or chit-chat meetings, has he not an apology to make of the same kind, but of a more important and interesting nature? and, if he be deficient in the duties of his profession for want of so excusing himself, will not Mrs. Siddons rise up in judgment against him, and condemn him? MOULTING. The Heathen philosophers allowed human nature to be fallen from original rectitude, and sunk into a weak, drooping, and sickly state, which they called πτερορρύησις the moulting of the soul's wings.-A just and beautiful image: the old feathers drop off, to make way for a new plumage. MUSIC. When Agamemnon set out for Troy, Homer tells us, he committed his wife to the care of a musician, as the best of guardians and preceptors. Nor could the adulterer Egysthus seduce her, till he had taken off the musician, whose instruction, while he lived, kept the princess in the path of virtue. -Odyss. iii. 267.-How different, in those days, must the character of a musician, and the use of music have been, from their character and use at present ! NATURE. 1. Mary Magdalene, like the heliotrope, followed the sun of righteousness in his diurnal course. She attended him to his evening retreat, and met his rising lustre in the morning. But one, the lofty follower of the sun, Sad, when he sets, shuts up her yellow leaves, 5. Eels, for want of exercise, are fat and slimy. For this reason, perhaps, fish without fins and scales were forbidden the Israelites; and the necessity of exercise, both for the body and the mind, might be the moral intended. 6. Stall-fed oxen, crammed fowls, and high-feeding Christians, are often diseased in their livers. No animal can be wholesome food that does not use exercise.-See Buchan. for nurses had been a good one for the fanati7. The rule which physicians lay down cal holders-forth in the last century, viz. never to give suck after fasting: the milk, in such cial to the constitution of the recipient. 8. Had man persevered in innocence, none of the creatures would have hurt him, and it is possible all might have ministered to him in one way or other; as, upon occasion, the ravens were made to do to the prophet. 9. It was the saying of a great general, that there should be some time between a soldier's dismission and his death; and it has been observed of the most furious polemical writers, as Bellarmine, and others, that they have spent the latter part of their lives in pious meditation. Thus huntsmen tell us, that a fox, when escaped from the dogs, after a hard chase, always walks himself cool, before he earths.-See Floyer and Baynard on Cold Baths, p. 328. 10. Providence hath afforded us an unusual and special instance of the brevity of life in the ephemeron, whose duration is from six in the evening till eleven. At the beginning of its life it sheds its coat, and spends the rest of its short time in frisking over the waters, on which the female drops her eggs, * See Evelyn's "Sylva," p. 37, which suggested the thought. and the male his sperm to impregnate them. Having thus served their generation, and provided for the continuance of the species, they die and are turned again to their dust and all this in five or six hours.— -Here, fond man, Vide SWAMMERDAM, Ephem. Vit. 11. Noxious creatures, in proportion as they are so, teach us care, diligence, and wit: weasels, kites, &c. induce us to watchfulness; thistles and moles, to good husbandry; lice oblige us to cleanliness in our bodies; spiders, in our houses; and the moth, in our clothes. Things often become hurtful, not of necessity, but by accident, through our own negligence or mistake. Let this be applied, in the moral world, to the concerns of our souls, and of the church. so that a very perfect resemblance of it is seen in them all. Now our bodies are these vessels filled with water; the sun is the image of the Supreme Being; and the figure of the sun, painted on each of these vessels, is a natural representation enough of the human soul, created after the image of God himself." Ibid. p. 248. 17. The passions, when in the most violent agitation, may be allayed by the consideration, of hell torments; as wine, when it ferments, ready to burst the hoops of its vessel, is calmed and quieted at once by the application of a match dipped in sulphur. 18. The Chinese physicians never prescribe bleeding, but allay the heat of the blood by abstinence, diet, and cooling herbs; saying, that, if the pot boil too fast, it is better to subduct the fuel, than lade out the water. 19. Persecution is contrary to the very 12. There are men whom nothing but hell nature and design of religion, which is to fire flashing in their faces can rouse from sin effect the conversion of the soul without and sensuality; as I have seen a fellow driv-hurting the body; as lightning injures not the ing a fat boar, with a lantern and a bundle of scabbard, when it melts the sword. straw, to burn a wisp under his nose, as often as he lay down in the mire: when he feels his beard singed, he gets up, and goes forward. 13. After having composed and delivered a sermon, I have often thought of, and repeated, the following lines of Thomson -O flow'rs, At ev'n, which I bred up with tender hand 15. The reproaches of an enemy often serve to quicken a man in his Christian course, as in Siberia they join a large dog to a rein-deer in their sledges, that the latter may be urged on by the bark of the former. -See Travels of the Jesuits, by Lockman, ii. p. 155. : 16. The manner in which man resembles his Maker is thus described by an ancient Bramin "Figure to yourself a million of large vessels quite filled with water, on which the sun darts his luminous rays. This beautiful planet, though single in its kind, multiplies itself in some measure, and paints itself totally, in a moment, on each of these vessels, 20. Vicious examples are most noxious when set off and recommended by the charms of oratory or poetry; as some poisonous plants growing on a mountain in China are said to kill only when they are in flower. 21. Naturalists tell us of harts and hinds, that, in crossing a piece of water, the hart, as the strongest, swimmeth first, to break the force of the stream, and the hind, as being weaker, followeth reclining her head on his back. Woman is the weaker vessel, and standeth in need of man to be her conductor through life; that, under his guidance, she may stem the torrent of the world, and reach, in safety, the shore of eternity. "Let her be as the loving hind, and pleasant roe;" and let her welfare and security be equally attended to by her husband. 22. Husbandınen are careful continually to stir and loosen the earth about the roots of plants. Otherwise it grows dry and hard, and ministers no nutriment. The mind will do the same unless exercised, and will starve the virtuous principles planted in it. Our Lord "I will dig about it." applies this, in the parable of the fig-tree.- 66 23. How fine an application do the following lines of the same poet admit of, to the benefits of adversity, and the manner in which the divine husbandman "purges every fruitful branch in his VINE, that it may bring forth more fruit!" Ac jam olim seras posuit cum vinea frondes, 25. In the work of salvation, as in that of husbandry, man must do his part, and God will not fail to do his. Multum adeo rastris glebas qui frangit inertes, Much too he helps his labor'd lands, who breaks Ev'n in the lowest months, when storms have shed Subdues to dust, and triumphs o'er the soil; From vines the hairy honors of their head; DRYDEN, 558. The vines, now ty'd with many a strength'ning band, Again, the tenderness with which young GEORG. ii. 362. DRYDEN, 497. Plenty to him, industrious swain! is giv'n, 26. It is one part of a clergyman's office to deduce, from the sublime doctrines of the Gospel, arguments of consolation, to refresh and renew the afflicted and weary soul. Let the following passage be applied to him in these circumstances: 27. He, who is entrusted with the education of youth, should, above all things, in the first place, explore and consider well the different tempers, dispositions, and abilities. of his scholars, that they may be trained to the several professions, or arts, for the study of which they are respectively fitted and qualified by nature. This is the advice given by Virgil to his farmer, that he should find out Et quid quæque ferat regio, et quod quæque recuset. The culture suited to the sev'ral kinds And what the genius of the soil denies. 28. When the mind is fatigued with one employment, it may find ease and refreshment by addressing itself to another of a different nature: as land will receive benefit by change of grain, as much as by lying fallow. |