to the volume, as in the following passage:

(g)9 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers, in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. (t) 10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel, after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts; and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: (r) 11 And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. (b) 12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.

(g) What GEOGRAPHICAL information is known of this country, province, city, or river.

(t) What doctrinal TRUTH is here inculcated? Is it directly or indirectly taught? How illustrated? How applied? What practical influence should it

MILDNESS and gentleness are not the attributes of feebleness; they are not to be confounded with cowardice and cunning, neither are they to be mistaken for short-sightedness, stupidity, and dullness; nor yet to be compared with facility of nature, and yielding of disposition, and pliableness, and the like.For the which, in these days of expediency and prudence, they are oft mistaken. Nay, verily, but the meekness and gentleness of Christ, doth consist, with a firmness of purpose, a boldness and freeness of speech and manner, a steadfast contradiction of evil powers and authorities, and a constant opposition to temporizing expedients and prudential measures, such as was manifested by our Lord against the Pharisees and Sadducees, the rulers of the religious ascendants in his time; and it consisteth with the silent dignity and rebuke which he bestowed upon Herod and his men of

war, whe set him at nought; and it likewise consisteth with the great unaided undertakings, the imprudent adventures, the uncivil speeches, the stern rebuke, the unyielding fortitude of the apostles and first Christians; and it doth consist likewise with that earnest zealous controversy which Luther and Calvin, and the first Reformers, maintained against the Papal superstitions, and with the stern purpose to worship God according to the truth which animated our fathers, all of whom were so siout, resolute, and stubborn towards wicked men, for the very reason that, towards God and the Church of Christ, they were all-meek, all-gentle, and all-submissive.

It is not the smallness of the stream that makes its face smooth, and its current gentle :-nay, but the larger the body of water, the greater is the placidity and gentleness of its course, over the same surface and within the same banks. The river which brawled from pool to pool, and hurried along its current with a thousand misdirections of its course, and disturbances of its surface; doth, when it is in full flood, flow with an evenness and a beauty between its banks, with a placidity of strength, and a unity of might, which, while it is beautiful to behold, is terrible to withstand. Cast an impediment in its way, and with gentle power it carries it along.

Even so, the mildness and gentleness of a man, brought under the dominion of the Holy Ghost, doth gather all the scattered and opposing forces, into one great and constant stream of obedience towards God; in which he flows along with an undisturbed majesty, and will not be diverted from his steadfast purpose, but seeketh his way steadily onwards towards the great ocean of blessed being, which is union with Christ, and through Christ, union with God.*

*Rev. E. Irving's Discourse on "this know also, that in the last days, men shall be fierce, or unmeek."

READING THE CHURCH SERVICE.-Sad times in the beginning of Elizabeth, when by her Majesty's injunctions, the clergy were commanded to read the chapters over once or twice by themselves, that so they might be the better enabled to read them distinctly in the congregation. Fuller's Triple Reconciler, p. 82.

VARIETIES.

ASTRONOMY. Of all the sciences, astronomy is the most elevated and sublime, as it is the most ancient, and the most perfect. It is susceptible of most numerous and important practical applications. It is the highest triumph of human intellect, and is calculated to give us the most exalted idea of the intelligence and penetration of man; while on the other hand, this intelligence and penetration sinks into insignificance, when compared with the wisdom and power of the great framer of the celestial machinery. It is, in truth, from astronomical studies that we can more readily, than from any other branch of human learning, reach a knowledge of the attributes of the Deity of his goodness in the nice adaptation of all the parts of the universe, to our own comfort and happiness; of his wisdom in the perfect organization and machinery of the system, in which the most exact calculus can detect no flaw; of his power, in the enormous masses of the bodies of our system, and in the vast space it occupies; a space, however, that dwindles to a point, when compared with the extent peopled by other planets, and other suns; of eternal duration, in those motions that have for ages remained without change, and must so for ever remain, unless a power be interposed to stay them, equal to that which originally called them into exis

tence.

PARADISE LOST.-Milton did not begin to write Paradise Lost until he was forty-seven years of age. He sold it for five pounds, to Samuel Simmons, April 27, 1667. In two years more, he had five pounds for the second edition. In 1680, Mrs. Milton sold all her right for eight pounds. Simmons then sold the copyright for twenty-five pounds. It is an extraordinary fact, that Milton had great difficulty in getting the book licensed. Dr. Bentley, the first editor of the Paradise Lost, got one hundred guineas for his edition. Dr. Newton, the next editor, got six hundred and thirty pounds for the Paradise Lost, and one hundred guineas for the Regained. It was an extraordinary misjudgment of the celebrated Waller, who speaks thus of the first appearance of Paradise Lost:-"The old blind schoolmaster, John Milton, hath published a tedious poem on the Fall of Man; if its length be not considered a merit, it has no other."

A WELL TIMED ADMONITION.-At the court of France, while Louis XIV. was yet

in his youth, some abject courtiers were entertaining the prince in public with the policy of the Turkish government. They observed, "that the Sultan had nothing to do, but to say the word, whatever it was, whether to take off a great man's head, or strip him of his employment or estate, and that there were a train servants they called mutes who executed it without reply." Voila, said the sprouting tyrant, ce que c'est deregner! See, what it is to be a king! The old Count de Grammont, who heard the corrupters of the youth with indignation, immediately interposed-" But, Sire! of these same sultans I have known three strangled by their own mutes within my memory."

This

silenced the flatterers; and the Duke de Montausier the French Cato, who was lolling in a chair behind the circle that surrounded the prince, forced his way through the crowd, and publicly thanked the Count de Granmont for his noble and seasonable liberty.

The

NUMBER OF BOOKS EXTANT.-It is uncertain (says an American writer) what is the number of books now extant in all languages. I have used a library of 250,000 volumes, which contained no duplicate, and it was so perfect, that it was difficult to ask for an author not to be found in it. largest library in Europe contains near 400,000 volumes, duplicates not included; and perhaps it may be about right to estimate the whole number of printed books in the world at 500,000. This being the case, America furnishes about one-seventeenth of the means necessary for extending learning to the utmost, and about one-thirteenth of of what the city of Paris alone affords. Another comparison will show her poverty in a manner equally striking. Germany contains 30,000,000 of people, who have 2,000,000 of books in public libraries of their instruction, exclusive of those of the sovereign Princes, which are always acaccessible to scholars. America contains 10,000,000 of people, who have 150,000 books for the same pupose.

LITERARY NOTICE.

MR. DAVID WIRE is collecting materials for a History of WHITFIELD and his Contemporaries; and respectfully solicits the possesors of documents or letters relative to the same, to communicate them to him. All materials so entrusted to him, shall be carefully preserved and faithfully returned.

pathies of the human bosom towards suffering and patient poverty. But I forbear to press these views, rather confiding the funds of this institution to your christian principle, than to the momentary excitement of your kindly feelings, and proceed to that which I think is the peculiar province of the christian pulpit, in connexion with such an institution as this, namely, to make an open declaration of the revealed purposes of JEHOVAH concerning the Jewish nation, when the time of the Gentiles shall have been fulfilled, when his appointed hour for breaking up the nations of the fourth great monarchy shall come-when Israel's instrumentality shall be used for that purpose, and she shall be reinstated in dominion, the fair and glorious instrument of promoting the cause of righteousness and God, which will then triumph over all the earth.

It is to the LAST GREAT SCENE of the conflict, previous to the FINAL establishment of that glorious peace, that our text refers.

On this

The idols of Babylon are contrasted with the portion of Jacob, who is the LORD of HOSTS. In the eighteenth verse, it is said of them, "They are vanity, the work of errors: in the time of their visitation they shall perish. The Portion of Jacob is not like them; for he is the former of all things; and Israel is the rod of his inheritance: the Lord of Hosts is his name." Now, by the twenty-fourth verse, it is abundantly clear, that the language of the twentieth verse is addressed to the Jewish nation, to whom it is promised, that they shall see God rendering unto Babylon all the evil that Babylon had done in Zion, in their sight. passage Bishop Lowth remarks, that "It will be fulfilled at the fall of the mystical Babylon, when God's kingdom shall break in pieces all the kingdoms of the earth, in the destruction of the remnant of the fourth monarchy." From the whole passage, therefore, we learn that God will make use of the instrumentality of the Jewish nation, for the breaking in pieces of the nations of the great monarchy of the earth, standing in their ungodly opposition to the purposes and the people of God in the last days. It is, therefore clear, that the prophecy cannot be applied to the destruction of the literal Babylon; because the literal Babylon was broken in pieces, not by the Jewish nation, but by the Persians. The verse

succeeding our text supplies another argument to the same purpose, where the destruction of Mount Babylon is threatened to be as a burning mountain; "I will stretch out mine hand upon thee, and roll thee down from the rocks, and will make thee a burnt mountain." Whereas, the literal Babylon was never destroyed by fire, but that the mystical Babylon shall be so, is clear from the Apocalypse.

These brief arguments are sufficient to establish the fact, that the prophecy before us still remains to be fulfilled; and the further fact, that it is to be fulfilled by the Jewish nution.

Now, the description of the victory given to this nation, in this passage, is evidently the description of a final victory. It is a sort of victory that renders all further fighting superfluous. It is the breaking in pieces of old and young, of civil and military, of the shepherd and the flock. In order fully to enter into this last scene of conflict, and to perceive clearly who are the persons that are engaged in it, it will be necessary to take somewhat of a retrospect of the great conflict that has existed from the infancy of the world, and which shall exist, and which shall continue until God shall raise up Judah, in her strength, to put an end to it, according to his prophecy.

"Now, the evening and the morning were the sixth day. And God looked upon the earth, and upon all that it contained, and upon all that he had created and made, and behold it was very good." It was a scene of unspotted loveliness without, of purity and uncontaminated happiness within; and Adam, the delegated prince of the new creation, with all his dominion, were very good in the sight of God. How long it continued so we are not informed, but presently an enemy came in. Why the deadly foe was permitted to come in, or rather, why the world was made for the immediate purpose of permitting him to come in, and the remote purpose of casting him out and bringing in a second Adam, the foreordained God-man, I shall not now enquire; for I am only referring to the facts, the undeniable facts of the case. He did come in, and a conflict immediately commenced: for he came to try his hand upon the king of the fair creation -to usurp Adam's authority over it. And the conflict between him and Adam was but of very short duration. The re

sult of the conflict was victory to Satan, the chief of the devils-of those angels that kept not their first estate, but were cast down by JEHOVAH-the result was victory to Satan; disgrace, degradation, and misery to Adam. The conflict, therefore, seemed to be at an end, and the great intruder, the great usurper, to have every thing his own way. And, undoubtedly, so it would have been, and so it would have continued; for had Adam been left to his own resources, he and his posterity must have remained the slaves of Satan without a struggle-Satan, their tyrant and tormentor, without a check from God. But Adam was not left to himself. A friend came, and undertook to fight his battle; and that friend was the EVERLASTING WORD, who, in the beginning, was with God, and who was God, and whose eternal purpose it was to take upon him the nature of fallen Adam, and as finite man, sustained effectually by the Holy Ghost in him, to enter into personal conflict with Satan, and overcome him in the flesh. This was the friend that undertook Adam's cause. He might have come to the conflict at once. He might have cast out the intruder the day after his successful enterprize. He might have cut short the wickedness in the bud, and have reinstated his earth in its beauty and fertility. But he did not. On the contrary, he pronounced a curse on the man-a curse on the woman-a curse on the earth-a curse on the devil. Why he delayed, and left all under a curse, I stop not to enquire, but proceed with the facts of the case. He did delay. He planted however, a seed in the earth, which he caused to take root, and strike downwards, and bear fruit upwards, and he formed a beautiful little garden, and so preserved that garden from the influence of the devil, that he was never able to blight its odoriferous flowers. The seed was propogated in the chosen line of Adam's posterity, and then began the conflict that has never yet ceased-a conflict, not between Adam and Satan, but between Satan and Christ in Adam : Christ putting forth as much of his power as was sufficient to keep Satan in check, but not putting forth so much as was sufficient to eject Satan for the present. And, my brethren, this is the only sort of conflict that can last long. When two parties contend with each other, with an equal degree of strength, the conflict

must last for a comparatively short time, The one must soon give way to the other. because the least relaxation of that strength is immediately taken advantage of. But a contest between two parties, the one reserving his strength, the other exerting it to the utmost; the former allowing to the latter the victory, in a measure, but keeping in himself a great reserve of strength to put forth when he pleases this is the way to keep up a long conflict, and this is the sort of conflict now going on between Satan and Christ.

Now the devil is a spirit, and in order to be seen and heard by the eyes and the ears of flesh, he must assume a form, and utter a sound. When he first came to unfallen man he assumed the serpent's form, he uttered the sound, as of the words of a man; but, since man has fallen, Satan is not under the necessity of resorting to the form of a reptile. Fallen man has become his instrument.Abel was in the Lord's little garden of reserve; Satan attacked him, not by a serpent, not by a lion, but by his own brother-attacked him by Cain, and killed him. This in the scripture doctrine; Cain was of the wicked one, a child of the devil; and who, as the apostle says, gave him power to slay his brother. The children of Seth were, as a family, in the Lord's enclosure; Satan attacked them, not by a serpent, or a lion, or a bear; but, by the fair beauty of worldly women : The sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were fair," and they made an ungodly alliance with them, from which came that ungodly issue that ultimately led to the deluge.

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Now the devil was acquainted with God's great purpose, of setting up a kingdom upon the earth, and rescuing it out of his usurpation, and giving it back to the seed promised to Adam; and he knows, and his angels know, something of the chronology of this purpose. You remember, that some of them, who had possession of the poor lunatics, when Jesus of Nazareth was walking on the earth, and came to dispossess them, said unto him, "We know that thou art the Son of God, art thou come hither, to torment us before the time?" They knew there was a time-" art thou come hither to torment us before the time ?" The devil knew well this great purpose of God; and see what he has done. He has been