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nave also shewn you who your Creator is, viz. the same great Being "who made the world, and all things that are therein," and who has contrived and fitted all things so as to be subservient to your enjoyment and happiness. This God hath made you, and given you all things which you enjoy. It is plain, therefore, that you ought to remember him, that is, to think on him at all times, and to serve and please him in every thing you do. For it is to him that you are obliged for your very being.

But to whom is it that you are obliged for your preservation? for you know that if he who made you had taken no care of you, but left you, helpless and without friends, to take care of yourselves, you must quickly have perished. It is, therefore, of great importance that you should know who has preserved you, and be duly sensible of your obligations to him, whoever he is. Now your catechism informs you, that "the same God that made you preserves and maintains you, and that in him you live and move and have your being."

God has provided for your preservation by the circumstances in which he has placed you in the world, and by the care which he has taken to fit you for subsisting by the things which you see around you. He has placed you in the midst of a vast variety of plants and animals, and he has given you power to obtain and prepare them for food, has furnished you with stomachs to digest and turn them into proper nourishment, and so to support and maintain your lives, which, without such a provision, would presently come to an end. And that you may never want a sufficient quantity of these things, of corn and fruit for yourselves, and of grass and herbs for the cattle you are to feed upon, God takes care to order the seasons of the year so as that the ground shall always be producing them, by. giving rain in the spring to cause their growth, warmth in the summer to ripen and make them ready for us, and pleasant, mild, settled weather in the autumn, to enable mankind to reap and gather them in without inconvenience. And then comes dreary winter, in which the earth goes to sleep,, as it were, and having refreshed itself after the labours of the year, is ready to produce its fruits once more, in another succession of seasons. Thus you see the rain and cold are no less necessary than warmth and fair weather; the one to cause the grass to spring, the other to give the earth time to prepare for another spring. But to be wet

with rain and perishing with cold are very disagreeable things; God has therefore provided various substances to serve as clothing to wrap about us, and houses to cover ns and keep us warm and dry; so that these necessary inclemencies of the weather are not capable of doing us any material harm.

Thus careful is "the great God that made you," to "preserve and maintain you." But while you were young you were weak and helpless, and not able to make use of these defences against wet and cold, or to provide a sufficient quantity, or proper kinds of necessary food. Therefore, your heavenly Father has wisely ordered that the same instruments by which he created you should also be disposed to preserve you. For he has given your parents a strong affection for you, which leads them to do every thing in their power to make you comfortable and happy, by furnishing you with proper food and clothing, by taking care of your health and protecting you from danger.

But as many evils continually surround you, which neither you can perceive nor your parents teach you how to avoid, God does not slacken his attention to you, or leave you at any time without defence or help. For though he hath created and continually governs the world and all the hosts of heaven, yet this does not prevent him from attending to each of you. You are each of you as much the care of this great God and Father of all worlds and of all spirits, as if he had no creature but you to love and protect. He watches over you sleeping and waking, and has preserved you from a thousand dangers which neither you nor your parents knew any thing of.

O then, my dear young friends, if you are always in the hands of God, be careful to have him in all your thoughts. If you are always preserved and fed by him, remember him at all times. Never forget that good God" in whom you live and move and have your being." And be not afraid that thinking of God will make you dull and gloomy, and spoil the pleasure and satisfaction of your enjoyments. For a firm persuasion that every thing is managed by a good being, and that whatever hazards you may seem to be in, there is always one attending you who is much wiser and better and kinder than any earthly friend, will surely be most likely to make you cheerful and happy, and give an additional satisfaction to your hours of pleasure and amuse

ment.

And as God has given you parents and kind friends, whom he has disposed to protect and preserve you, be careful, after you have thanked him for them, to love and honour and thank them also for their kindness to you. Reverence them in all their commands, submit to their instructions and rebukes, and strive in every thing to make their care of you as little burthensome as you can. Your parents suffer a great deal of concern and anxiety for you, and they have much trouble and perplexity with the best of you; is it not, then, a shame that you should do any thing to increase their trouble? Without them you must even yet perish; for if they were to refuse to support and preserve you, God has provided no one else with the affections necessary to their undertaking so troublesome an office; you ought then to be thankful that any one will do it, and to shew your thankfulness by your good dispositions towards them.

But above all things, forget not to consider God as the fountain and cause of every thing you enjoy, of every thing that even your parents have done for you; for they are only the bearers and ministers of God's good things to you. Take him, then, for your Lord, your Father, and your Friend; love and serve him at all times; and then he will bless and keep you; and though all your earthly supports of father, mother or friend should fail, he will be your true and never-failing support, and your portion for ever.

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STONEHENGE.

[From Mr. A, Watts's “Literary Souvenir, for 1828."]
MYSTERIOUS pile! what necromantic lore
Invoked thee into light? Moons wax and wane,
The Roman, and the Saxon, and the Dane,
Have wandered where the Druid long of yore
Purpled thy circles with unhallowed gore:
The castle sinks, the palace, and the fane,
While thou can'st hear in mockery and disdain
The storms of twice ten hundred winters roar.
Yet vaunt not, giant wonder! Let the ground
Tremble, and thou art dust. The stars shall fall
From heaven: and heaven itself be as a dream,
That flies, and is forgotten. Angels all,
Eternal ages, regions without bound,

Proclaim ye one sole strength-the Ineffable Supreme !

H.

i

HERESY IN KENT AND SUSSEX A CENTURY BACK.

SIR, No. 6, Goulden Terrace, Pentonville. I MET with a little book during my residence in Kent, which gives curious information as to the state of reputed heresy in that and the adjoining county of Sussex more than a century ago. By your leave I will make a few ex tracts from it for "The Christian Reformer."

The Epistle to the Reader is dated "from Ashford in Kent, May 27, 1701," and is signed "Christopher Cooper," who it appears, from page 89, was present in the General Assembly of the Baptists in London eight years previously, when an inquisition into opinions took place, the influence of which had been felt during the interval. Mr. Cooper takes what will appear to your readers the illiberal view of the case, but I shall use him merely as an authority as to facts, separating from these the harsh language and oppro brious epithets, to be scattered like chaff before the wind.

Mr. C., it appears from the first section, the title-page being lost, was moved to write by the publication of a book entitled The Moderate Trinitarian, in which Mr. C. thinks he discovers unfairness; and in truth his opponent seems to have used his terms pretty much in the same way with those who call themselves Moderate Calvinists, who are generally no Calvinists at all.

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Certainly a vast difference is between us, because those that do not own Christ to be Most High God, do exclude the Son out of the essence of the Father; they that do say God the Father only is Most High God, excluding the Son, as all the Cafinites* and Socinians do, are at a vast difference from us, and are not agreed so nigh as Mr. Allen pretends; for we believe Father, Son and Holy Ghost is the only one Most High God."

Section ii. is styled, "Mr. Allen's Description of the Holy Trinity examined, and a vast Difference between the Orthodox and the Cafinites, Unitarians, &c., still remains; and first of God the Father."

Mr. C. had heard" that " Cafin should say he did not understand what persons meant by Christ's giving divine satisfaction, &c.; and I am well satisfied he is corrupt about the fall of Adam, believing it did not bring ETERNAL DEATH, nor that man hath an immortal soul; all which are bottoms

* From a Unitarian Baptist Minister of the name of Matthew Cafin, referred to in Mr. Holland's account of General Baptists, in the Mon. Repos., N. S., Vol. I. p. 483, of which remarkable person may hereafter speak.

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of corruption, large enough to shut Christ, as to his merits and glorious undertakings, quite out of doors. Now, though these notorious corruptions are got in amongst many persons of understanding and parts on Mr. Cafin's side, as well as the direct principle of Socinians, yet I do not charge this, I have said, upon every person that is in communion with them; no, I have better hopes of some, though they do not see their way clear about the two natures of Christ and his offices, yet have a valuable esteem for Christ and his undertakings; but yet this will eat as doth a gangrene, if not timely prevented; and their giving heed to those men so corrupt as Mr. A. and Mr. C., sending the latter out clothed with their authority, lays the weak, honest-hearted souls under great danger of being beguiled further." Mr. C. urges, that "Mr. Cafin, at a meeting at Smarden, 1699, publicly took upon him to plead against Christ's being the true God, equal with the Father, and man of our nature: they pretended to have cleared him a little last summer at their General Meeting at HorsleyDown, London, of the principles and errors of Arius, Socinus, &c., yet all was but a quibble; for though he will not own the name of Arian or Socinian, they differing from him, it may be, in some points, yet doth he hold the errors of both, for indeed he denies both the humanity and divinity of Christ too but Arius did not deny his humanity as I find, nor Socinus: but, however, after his friends washed him and dressed him up a little to hide the black, yet it was not in their power to wash him that is a Blackamoor white. As to Socinus' principles, I think none question; if they do, let them see the book called Four Letters to a Friend, and Biddle's Catechism."

Our author mentions, p. 88, as places in Kent where the Unitarian question was thus early agitated, Spilshil in Staplehurst, Frittenden and Headcorne, in which last place

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meeting after meeting was held to dispute and reason it out," and where, perhaps, Unitarian worship first gained a permanent footing in the county. So recently as the year 1819, the congregation removed their place of meeting, before very secluded, to a more public situation, on the road from Maidstone to Tenterden; and I shall never forget the pleasure which I received from coming quite unexpectedly in view of this primitive Christian temple in the Weald of Kent, on the front of which the zeal of its builders had at that time placed the inscription, Unitarian Baptist Chapel. And do not the worshipers still believe

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