Poetry. MAN COMETH FORTH, LIKE A FLOW. ER, AND IS CUT DOWN. CHANGE is inscrib'd on all things here below; We reap rejoicing, oft in tears we sow. If Heav'n disown the seed, no shoots arise; Yet winter comes, fair nature's charms are fled; Hope much may promise, little may be true. And heav'nly joys with steady course pursues ;' Nor death be premature, if Christ we gain. more; Her pious sons a father's loss deplore; Learning, and friendship, and religion mourn; Her guardian patrons bend c'er WILLARD's urn. He sleeps in Jesus, wipe the falling tear; FILIUS. ALAS! MY JANE! "He was delighted with the work of his own hands; he saw it beautiful. He made it good, and took it to himself." I HAD a daughter sweetly fair Which sterner daty order'd so, And so did I the day was come, Papa be cheerful; perhaps I may ; I saw the struggles in her heart; My little infant now is gone; I make no doubt, on heavenly ground AN ODE. The sentiment from the divine Herbert SWEET day, so cool so calm so bright, Bridal of earth and sky, The dew shall weep thy fall to night; Sweet rose, in air whose odours wave, Thy root is ever in its grave, And thou, alas must die. Thou too, alas! must die. Be wise then, Christian, while you may, AN EPITAPH IN OLNEY CHURCH YARD. BLAME not the monumental stone we raise, 'Tis to the Saviour's, not the sinner's praise: Sin was the whole that she could call her own, Her good was all deriv'd from him alone; To sin, her conflicts, pains, and griefs she ow'd, Her conqu'ring faith, and patience He be- Reader, inay 'st thou obtain like precious faith! Ep. HORNE. TO CORRESPONDENTS. Communications from Asaph, and Phi Beta are unavoidably omitted, but shall have a place in the next number. X has our thanks for his serious reflections. The paraphrase of bishop Horne is interesting, and will appear in a future number. The concise and useful criticism of Eusebius on Diamoon and Daimonian is approved, and shall have an early insertion. We hope that Constans, Patmos, and Philo will continue to favour us with their communications. We thank Z for his judicious observations on Mysteries, and R for his illustration of Isaiah Ixviii. 9. AGENTS FOR THE PANOPLIST. Rev. MIGHILL BLOOD, Buckstown ;-Mr. E. GOODALE, Hallowell ;THOMAS CLARK, bookseller, Portland ;-W. & D TREADWELL, do. Portsmouth;-THOMAS & WHIPPLE, do. Newburyport ;-CUSHING & APPLETON, do Salem;-EDWARD COTTON, do. Boston;-ISAIAH THOMAS, do. Worcester;-WILLIAM BUTLER, do. Northampton;-WHITING, BACKUS & WHITING, do. Albany ;T. & J. SWORDS, do. New York;-WM. P. FARRAND, do. Philadelphia ;—Wм. WILKINSON, do. Providence ;-ISAAC BEERS & Co. do. New Haven ;-O. D. Cook, do. Hartford ;-Mr. BENJAMIN CUMMINGS, Windsor, Ver. ;-Mr. LEE, Bath, Me SKETCHES OF THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF PROFESSOR TAPPAN. WHILE professedly giving the character of a celebrated minister of the gospel and professsor of divinity, we cannot with propriety omit an inquiry into his religious sentiments. To the most approved christian biographers, the inquiry has appeared worthy of attention. And men of different and opposite sentiments all prove, by the warmth of their feelings, and by the vigour and resolufion of their efforts, that, whatever they pretend, they really esteem the question respecting religious opinion of great consequence. It is, therefore, apprehended, that the theological system, which Doctor Tappan embraced, is a subject highly interesting to every one; although, as facts are, the full developement of that system might, to some, be very ungrateful. Let it be, however, remembered, that his opinion is not adduced as proof, that the system which he received, is true. Our object is, by the faithful use of advantages in our hands, to ascertain a matter of fact. In the Doctor's own words, cited in their proper connection, we shall exVol. I. No. 5. hibit his theological sentiments; hoping at the same time to administer valuable religious instruction and entertainment to readers. That clear and distinct information may be given, quotations are introduced respecting several particular subjects. I. The character, purposes, and ways of God. In answer to the objection against the divine goodness from the sin and misery of man, he says; "In the view of an infinitely wise and comprehensive benevolence, a creature so formed and circumstanced, as man, might be necessary to complete the scale of universal being, and to increase the stock of general felicity. And this reasoning will be greatly strengthened by considering, that even the existence of moral and afflictive evil will probably be overruled to purposes of extensive good. For besides the private advantages of natural evil, we may suppose that the present and future sufferings annexed to human transgression, may be of eminent utility to intelligent virtuous spectators, not only of our own, but A a of other systems of being, to give them more striking im pressions of the governing jus-, tice, wisdom, and holiness of God, and more effectually to guard them against every tendency to vice, and secure their inviolable attachment to virtue. And even sin itself, though in its native tendency and the design of the agent, it be a malignant and destructive evil, yet may be, and in fact, has been overruled, as an occasion of the more various and glorious display of the perfect purity, justice, and even benevolence of God; it has, under the administration of infinite wisdom, given occasion to the plan of redemption, and to all those astonishing manifestations of divine mercy, patience, long suffering, and of rich, triumphant grace, which are shown to our rebellious world. And as for the misery of incorrigible sinners hereafter, we may be assured it will be no greater than their own demerit, and the general order and happiness of the universe require.? That passage in Ezekiel, As I live, saith the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of the vicked, he thus explains; "God has no pleasure in the death of the sinner, in itself considered. It is no pleasure to him to punish, merely for the sake of making or seeing his creatures miserable. It does not gratify his nature to inflict pain; and he never does it, but to answer some great and benevolent purpose. It is not the nature of God to measure out pain to his creatures, unless he can by this advance the good of the whole." From the following quotation we learn what his sentiments were on a very controverted subject. "The will of God, with regard to the manifestations of it to us, or our finite conceptions of it, is distinguished into two branches; viz. his secret, and his revealed' will. His secret will means the same thing with his eternal counsels, whereby he laid the plan of all future events from everlasting, in a most wise, free, absolutely immutable and infallible manner; so that those things which seem to us the effects of natural causes, or merely casual and contingent events, are entirely subservient to the secret purposes of the infinite, eternal mind, and are so many instruments of fulfilling his pleasure." After quoting the passage, in which God says; My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure, he thus proceeds; Even those various, unstable and free volitions and movements of the human mind and will, which seem to come under no government or restraint but that of itself, are yet most exactly ordered and overruled by God to accomplish the purposes of his own will. herein, as an excellent writer observes, we may observe the profound and unsearchable wisdom, power and purity of God; that while man worketh freely, yet therein and thereby God worketh powerfully; and while man worketh sinfully, God And worketh purely and justly. The freedom of man's will is not controlled by the infallibility of God's counsel, nor can it, (that is, man's will) interrupt or disappoint it, (that is, the divine counsel.) And on the other hand the sinfulness of the will and ways of man is not justified or excused by the infallibility and purity of the counsel of God. Now this will of God's counsel or decrees is called secret, because it lay hid in his breast from eternity, and cannot be known by us until he fulfil it in his works, or declare it in his word." He then mentions God's revealed will, by which his pleasure is made known to us; first, by his commands, which discover our duty; and secondly, by his providence, by which he accomplishes, and so discovers what was purposed in his own mind from everlasting. "It is of great importance, that these different views of the will of God should be kept distinct in our minds. God's secret will is the reason and rule of his own conduct; but his reveal ed will is the great rule of ours. I may add, that God's revealed will is, that all men should obey his laws, and be holy and happy; and yet it is evident from fact, that this is not his secret disposing will; that is, he does not, as the great disposer of events, will, or determine to bring about the universal holiness and salvation of our fallen race." The distinction he makes is, in short, between the. law of God, which points out our duty, and the purpose of God respecting events; a distinction obvious to every considerate man. But the expe dience, and even the propriety of using the terms, secret and revealed, in the sense abovementioned, is seriously doubted. II. The natural character and state of mankind. "The love of Christ was exercised towards objects, which had nothing in them to attract love, but every thing to provoke hatred; for his love to his people originally respected them, as rebellious sinners, creatures in ruins, ruined by their own guilt; creatures who had stripped themselves of moral beauty, and become wholly unlike and contrary to their Maker, and consequently had no disposition to love the Lover, or, so much as to acoept of his free mercy."-"The love of Christ stooped, in some respects, to the very depths of hell, into which sinners had fallen in the temper of their hearts, the desert of their crimes, and the sentence of a broken law." Speaking of sinners, who are given up to strong delusion, to believe a lie, he says; "On the preaching of christianity, the evidence of the truth soon overpowered their assent; but the pure, selfdenying, spiritual nature and tendency of its doctrines and precepts, being contrary to all their dearest lusts and interests, soon produced in their hearts a secret dislike, and by degrees a direct open' |