from the deficiency of the individuals who are its members in knowledge, purity, and zeal. It follows from these considerations, that the way to remove the evils which exist in churches, is by effecting the reformation and improvement of the individuals who compose them; and that for such individuals to become zealous, and rouse themselves to more exertion, is the way to produce an increase of zeal and exertion in the churches. It is useless for any of you, my brethren, to lament the defects, the lukewarmness and indifference, and the want of zeal and proper exertions which exist in any of your churches, if you do not use all the means in your power to remove these evils: and in doing this you must begin with yourselves. If there be a beam in thine own eye, thou must first cast it out before thou canst hope to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye; thou must reform what is amiss in thyself, before thou canst hope for success in attempting the reformation of others. If you be deficient in zeal, and neglect to make the exertions in the great cause which you are capable of making, how can you complain of the want of zeal and exertion in others? By becoming more zealous, and increasing your exertions, you will not only add to the zeal already existing in your churches, and the exertions already made; you will stimulate the zeal and exertions of others by your example, and help to kindle and vivify the sacred flame, which may spread from breast to breast, until a holy ardour in the glorious cause is felt throughout your

churches.

It can hardly be expected that persons should feel much interest, or be inspired with much zeal, in the holy cause of genuine Christianity, unless they clearly understand it, are deeply impressed with its value and importance, live under its influence, and experience its happy effects. The tree must be made good before the fruit will be good. The heart must be right with God; the mind must be imbued with the principles and spirit of the gospel; a devout frame must be produced, and an habitual regard to God excited, in order to a steady flame of enlightened zeal being raised, which will be tempered by charity and guided by knowledge, and will produce those benevolent and unwearied, exertions in the cause of truth and righteousness which will do honour to religion, glorify God, and enlighten and bless mankind. It is only as, by the diligent use of all Christian means, and by carefully watching over yourselves,

you are preserved from the pollutions of the world, from sensuality and vice, and continue habitually pious, and under the holy influence of the doctrines you profess, that you can be expected to remain lively Christians, and zeaions in the cause of pure religion,

On the grounds already stated, let me, my brethren, exhort you to look to yourselves individually, to examine the state of your own minds, and to consider your ways.. 1. Are you continuing steadfast and diligent in your attention to the word of life; seeking daily to attain the further knowledge of it, to have it dwelling in you richly, and to abide under its influence? It is by this word that you are to live as Christians; this is the flesh of Christ which you are to eat, that you may live by the faith of the Son of God. As it is a source of life to you, it is to be a principle of life and action in you, and the rule by which you are to live. If you are neglecting this word, letting it slip from your minds, (figuratively speaking) ceasing to feed on it daily, no marvel that you become barren and unfruitful, that your zeal declines, and your love waxes cold. If unhappily this be the case, O! look back to the time when you received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the Scriptures daily, when you regarded the doctrine you profess as a pearl of great price, and rejoiced in the knowledge of it. Let your attention to divine truth be excited afresh, still seek to increase in the knowledge of it, meditate upon it daily; it will still quicken your souls, and give you joy and strength.

2. Are you cherishing a sense of the high authority and inestimable value of the sacred word, as it came from God, is the word of your salvation, and the record of eternal life; and seeking to have your faith strengthened by a frequent recurrence to the evidences of the divine origin and truth of the gospel? If through neglecting this, you suffer your faith to be weakened, and sceptical thoughts and feelings to steal upon you, the interest you feel in Christianity will be diminished, and your zeal will be lost in supineness; and O! consider how great will be your loss of comfort and of moral strength!

3.

Are your hearts right with God? Do you enjoy peace with him through our Lord Jesus Christ? Do you love God supremely? Is it your delight to worship and serve him? Is it your ardent desire to know and do his righteous will? Are you conscious of your uprightness in

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his sight, and of your desire in all things to please him? If your heart be not right with God, but estranged from him; if other objects be supreme in your affections, and you be not upright before him ; no wonder that you cease to feel zeal in his cause; but O! consider how awful is your state, and the account you will have to give of yourselves to him hereafter. May you turn to him with all your hearts.

4. Are you setting God always before you, and acknowledging him in all your ways? Do you cherish and live under a sense of the Divine presence, viewing the hand of God in all the events and occurrences of your lives, putting your whole confidence in him, and cheerfully resigning yourselves to his will? Do you cultivate a devotional frame of mind, and seek to have your thoughts raised to God, and your hearts lifted up to him, with pious affections, on all occasions? If such be your state, you cannot be cold-hearted and indifferent in the cause of God and truth.

5. Are you attentive to the private instrumental duties of religion, such as reading, meditation, prayer, and thanksgiving, self-examination, the keeping of your hearts with all diligence, watching over the door of your mouths, and pondering the path of your feet? A steady and persevering attention to these things will make you exemplary Christians, and prepare you to be useful in whatever sphere you are called to act, and will render you the better qualified to promote the edification of the church, and the cause of true religion. The neglect of these things may lead to lukewarmness in the Christian profession.

6. Are you cultivating the spirit of Christ, the mind which was in him, his disposition? It is in this spirit that every thing in Christianity must be done, and that his cause must be promoted. If you act in a different spirit, you will dishonour him, and injure his cause, rather than promote it, whatever may be your views and intentions.

7. Are you living according to the gospel? You can neither be edified, nor edify others, nor promote the cause of pure and undefiled religion, any further than you live according to the gospel.

This letter, my Brethren, is designed to remind you of instructions which I gave you in days that are past, and to impress on your minds what is essential to the revival and prosperity of the good cause among you; for it can be

revived only so far as the good work is revived in you as individuals, and be made to prosper only as your souls prosper in what is truly Christian.

The brief remarks here made, are submitted to your consideration, and I beg of you to give them your most serious attention. Ever faithfully and affectionately, yours, &c. R. WRIGHT.

History honest with regard to Deceased Princes. THE adulation and homage with which kings are approached and spoken of in their life-time, make us blush for human nature and feel the degradation of our species. But Death, sometimes styled the great Leveller, is also the great Reformer. Dead kings are immediately consigned to History, which deals faithfully with them, and in this, as in many other respects, the proverb is verified that "Truth is the Daughter of Time."

Living princes often shew that they are not insensible to their posthumous responsibility. Were they more mindful of the judgment of survivors, they would be more careful of their momentous duties; but it is not easy to calculate how much worse they would be, had they no foresight of the trial which, like the Egyptian monarchs, they are doomed to undergo, as soon as the breath is out of their bodies, before the bar of Public Opinion.

This train of thought has been suggested by the perusal of the following remarks in the Times newspaper of March 21, on the recent death of John VI., King of Portugal, and Emperor (by courtesy) of Brazil. Distance of place has nearly the same influence, in dispelling prejudice as distance of time; and the criticism of an English newspaper ou the character of a deceased Portuguese sovereign, may be pronounced equivalent to the judgment of History.

"He appears to have been a Prince of small attainments ingrafted on mean endowments, and therefore with nothing intellectual or moral to distinguish him from the herd of crowned instruments, who remain passive amidst mighty changes, and are used like so many notched sticks, whereon we register the vicissitudes of nations. The chief animal propensity of the defunct Emperor and King, was one in which the demise of Louis XVIII. of France, left his Most Faithful Majesty without a rival in Christendom-so exclusive, but so remarkable, was the energy of his royal

stomach. An interest, however, which never could have been associated with the name or character of John VI., while living, his death has excited for the kingdom over which he nominally ruled."

Dr. Middleton's Remarks on the Story concerning St. John, the Evangelist, and Cerinthus, the Heretic.

[Concluded from p. 138.]

FROM these remarks upon the story, I shall proceed to the lesson which is drawn from it by the two Doctors above-mentioned, and shew,

2ndly, That though we allow the fact to be true, it will not justify the use to which they have applied it.

Now the constant use which is made of this story, is to demonstrate the duty of shunning and affronting Heretics; of denying them the common offices of civility; treating them as persons excommunicated, and detestable in the eyes of God and man: and this pressed upon all Christians by the authority and example of St. John!

But I would ask, whether a behaviour of this sort be agreeable to the ordinary temper aud spirit of the gospel, or of that Jesus, who came into the world as a physician to the sick; aud in that character sought out the publican and the sinner, for the opportunity of healing them; and preferred the heretical Sadducee and the schismatical Samaritan, to the fierce Zealot and the orthodox Pharisee? No, it is so far from being conformable to the ordinary rules of Christian duty, that it was copied, as Dr. Berriman himself owns, from the Jewish institutes: as if it flowed from that principle by which this same Apostle, while yet raw and unacquainted with the benevolent temper of his new religion, was calling down fire from heaven on the Samaritans, after the example of Elias, and was reproved accordingly by our Lord, for not knowing what manner of spirit he was of.

If I should ask these gentlemen also what it is that they mean by the word Heretic, we should find in the end, that they meant nothing more by it, than one who differed from them in any article of religion which they held to be important. Dr. Waterland calls him, an open impugner of fundamentals, and labours to prove, that we ought not to hold communion with any of that character. Aud should we ask once more, what are these fundamentals ? he would