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to find food and lodgings where they could, and taking possession of the rectory and its contents in the name of their masters, until some more Gospel minister could be found; in other words, until some man could be found who, both rebel and schismatic, would effectually work the will of those men, who, in a few years after, overthrew the altar and the throne, and martyred our primate* and our king.t

WORTHY OF IMITATION.

Ar a Meeting held lately at Ashton-under-Lyne, to aid the cause of Church Missions, it was stated by a clergyman, that a respectable farmer in his parish had waited upon him a short time since, and requested him to be kind enough to distribute for him the sum of one thousand pounds, being part of what, with the blessing of GOD, he had been enabled to lay by. A few weeks after he called upon his pastor again and told him that another thousand pounds was at his disposal for charitable purposes; five hundred pounds of which was set apart, at the clergyman's suggestion, for the fund now raising to send out bishops to our colonies. We would strongly advise our readers to follow this plan, and however little they may be enabled to spare out of their earnings, always to consult their clergymen, who know how they may lay it out to the best advantage.

* William Laud, Lord Archbishop of Canterbury was beheaded on Tower Hill, Jan. 10th, 1644.

King Charles 1st was beheaded at Whitehall, Jan. 30th, 1648.

SIGHS AND GROANS.

O Do not use me

After my sins! look not on my desert,
But on Thy glory! then Thou wilt reform
And not refuse me: for Thou only art
The mighty God, but I a silly worm:
O do not bruise me!

O do not urge me!

For what account can Thy ill steward make?
I have abused Thy stock, destroy'd Thy woods,
Suck'd all Thy magazines: my head did ache,
Till it found out how to consume Thy goods:
O do not scourge me!

O do not blind me!

I have deserved that an Egyptian night
Should thicken all my powers; because my lust
Hath still sew'd fig-leaves to exclude Thy light.
But I am frailty, and already dust:

O do not grind me!

O do not fill me

With the turn'd vial of Thy bitter wrath!
For Thou hast other vessels full of blood,
A part whereof my SAVIOUR emptied hath,
Even unto death. Since He died for my good,
O do not kill me!

But O reprieve me!

For Thou hast life and death at Thy command; Thou art both JUDGE and SAVIOUR, feast and rod, Cordial and corrosive. Put not Thy hand

Into the bitter box; but, O my GoD,

My GoD, relieve me!

George Herbert.

EXTRACTS FROM OLD WRITERS.

SOCRATES* telleth that when a terrible fire in Constantinople had fastened on a great part of the city, and took hold of the church, the bishop thereof went to the altar, and falling down upon his knees, would not rise from thence, till the fire blazing in the windows, and flashing at every door, was vanquished, and the church preserved; so that with the flood of his devotion he slaked the fury of the raging element. And the same shall be the force of England's prayers for England's welfare, if we be fervent therein; hereticks and schismaticks may rage, and the people rise up in tumults; but let us trust in Him that never forsaketh them that faithfully call upon His Name.-Dr. White's Sermon at St. Paul's, 1612.

In a sheet almanack, a man may, at one view, see all the months in the year, both past and to come; but in a book almanack, as he turneth to one month, so he turneth from another, and can but look only on the present. This is the true difference betwixt the knowledge of God and man; He looketh in one instant of time to things past, present, and future; but the knowledge of man reacheth only to a few things past and present, but knoweth nothing at all of things that are to come; that's GOD's peculiar so to do, and a piece of soaring too high. for any mortal man to attain to.-Dr. Daniel Price's Sermon at Christ Church.

How sick soever a man be with physick, he is not afraid of dying, because he considers the physician in wisdom gave him what now occasioneth his present sickness and distemper. No more should we be dismayed at the bitterness of our cup, if, with CHRIST, we did but take notice; -it is the cup that our heavenly Father hath mingled, and hath given us only for our correction, not confusion.Lewis of Granada's Meditations.

The Ecclesiastical Historian.

SUNDAY SCHOOLS.

THE different sects may instruct each its own children in a school of its own; but I do not see how the children of different sects can be instructed together in one school, as their doctrines, catechisims &c. are different, and the children are to be conducted to separate places of worship; the parents of one will not approve of their children being carried to the church or meeting house of another. How can you bring them all up in a catholic way, unless you have one catholic, that is, universal, general, common religion, in which to bring them up? To be of a catho

lic spirit, is to unite in that one religion; not to jumble together the errors, inconsistencies, and heresies of all. .This must end in indifference. It may bring the people of the Church nearer to the sects; but the present times do not give us any hope that it will bring the sects nearer to the Church.-Bishop Horne.

PARTY NAMES AVOIDED BY THE EARLY

CHURCH.

It is very observable that in all the names they chose, there was still some peculiar relation to CHRIST and GOD, from whom they would be named, and not from any man how great or eminent soever. Party names and human appellations they ever professed to abhor. "We take not our denominations from men," says St. Chrysostom, "we have no leaders, as the followers of Marcion, or Manichæus, or Arius.' No!" says Epiphanius, "the Church was never called so much as by the name of any Apostle. We never heard of Petrians, or Paulians, or Bartholomeans, or Thaddeans; but only of Christians from CHRIST."-Bingham.

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DURING this time you will readily imagine that Joseph Freethink had not been negligent in sowing the seeds of infidelity in a soil so well prepared to receive them. By degrees, as her affection for him increased, her admiration of his talents increased also, and with it a conviction that he could not be as wrong as she at first had been led to suppose. He certainly did throw doubts upon the truth of the Bible, and laughed at things which she had been accustomed to treat at all events with some degree of respect. But then he was so clever, and what he said had always so much in it, and moreover suggested reasons so pleasing and agreeable to an independent and insubmissive mind, that she was half disposed to embrace his viewsin fact, more than half of the evil work was done. She had learned to disbelieve the revelation which God has given of His dealings with man, which in former days she had believed; all the negative part of infidelity was done all that was wanting was a something to fill up the void which existed in her mind; this, by degrees, Joseph Freethink effected. Having removed from her

CHRISTIAN MAGAZINE, No. III.

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