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.

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."

p. 11.

Letters to Sir D. Carleton,

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 Methodist teacher; "He will soon (said she) by great humility become the head of a sect, and damn all "the rest of the world in the very spirit of cha"rity."

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 ope

G

ration 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 Friars, and the manner in which it is made to serve their interest, says, they are like pitchers, which stoop only in order to get filled.

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

you. But-there-take 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 minis"try 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 authority for this anecdote: but his admonition is most excellent. See the whole Improvement. See also Fam. Exp. vol. 1. sec. 14, where another anecdote is mentioned of Grotius; but the author, from whom I took it, did not cite his authority.

On the subject of the above admonition of Doddridge, see Norris's Conduct of Human life.-See Doddridge's Sermons and Tracts, 1.264.-Quesnel on Tit. iii. 9. a proper text for a sermon on the subject.

2. It often happens to the teachers of philosophy. and religion, as it did to Dr. Solander on the mountain. "You must keep moving," (says the Doctor)" at all events. Whoever sits down will

sleep, and whoever sleeps will wake no more." Yet he himself was the first who found the inclination, against which he had warned others, to be irresistible, and insisted upon being suffered to take a nap, though he had just told the company, that to sleep was to perish.-See Hawkesworth, i. 48.

3. "Reason ought to direct us (says Lord C.), "but it seldom does. And he who addresses himself

singly to another man's reason, without endea"vouring to engage his heart in his interest also, " is no more likely to succeed, than a man who "should apply only to a king's nominal minister, "and neglect his favourite."-The illustration is just and beautiful; and the observation deserves the notice of every one, whose employment it is to win men to faith and righteousness. Dry reasoning, though ever so solid, will not do alone. -See Letters, II. 54. cxxix.