to listen to the complaints made of the hardness of their toil, and the officious interference on points beyond their comprehension, all th is greatly perplexing even to those firmer spirits, whom no discourage ments can overcome. Of such, it is contemptuously said, that they are urged forward by sinister motives; that they entered the lists d the friends of virtue, not from any enlightened approbation, but wholly from a different feeling; and that if they had known the objec better, they would have valued it less. Such failures of the double minded, and the slanders which they provoke, must be expected, prepared for, met with fortitude and wisdom, and the injuries which fol low be borne with submission.

There are, on all great occasions, too many wishing for the honors and advantages of an arduous enterprise, but who do not carefully count the cost before engaging in it; and will not endure the hardships indispensable to a successful termination. These soon become an incumbrance on the laborious, who sustain the burdens of responsible stations. The wisest plans are in some degree frustrated by defections. Such characters cannot always be detected at the outset, and after they are mingled among others, a great deal of mischief is produced before they can again be separated. When, from the known principles of human nature, reasonable deductions are made, and still those deductions leave room to expect aid or encouragement, a complete disap pointment does not put the mind, even of a prudent man, in the best state for meeting misfortune.

EXTRACTS FROM THE DIARY OF THE REV. COTTON MATHER.

(Continued from vol. xv. p. 388.)

1716. Feb. 12. What! And is the fifty third year of my life this day finished? A life so forfeited, a life so threatened, such a dying life, yea, and such a barren one. My God, I praise thee. The display of thy sovereign grace is my admiration, my astonishment. My Savior, I bless thee; I love thee, I resolve to serve thee.

I will this day glorify my Savior with meditations and acknowledgments of his having the keys of the invisible world and of death in his glorious hands, and his having the souls of men, and very particularly their lives, at his disposal. Yea, I will communicate my meditations to my flock this day, and invite them to join with me in my ac knowledgments.

13. Good Devised. I am reviving my cares to visit the flock, and I would, as soon as I can, get furnished with my Echoes of Devotion, (which is not yet published,) that I may lodge the book in all the families where I come.

16. If I could redeem the time now and then to dress up sublime thoughts in metre, I might in time have a collection, which may prove a profitable and acceptable entertainment unto the church of God.

17. A Society of Christians in our neighborhood being disposed for the publishing of some discourses, I will propose as advantageously to them as I can.

1

19. Though I have been after a poor manner living unto God these many years, yet methinks I am not frequent and vigorous and explicit enough in those thoughts, with which the life of God is to be carried

on.

I would therefore now endeavor a greater frequency in forming those thoughts upou every turn, which being applied into my actions and my enjoyments, will bring such a respect unto God upon them, that I shall indeed live unto him.

Upon my actions. In this action I propose an obedience to the glorious God; animated with an apprehension that he knows what I now do under the eye of his glory; and that on the account of my beloved Jesus it will find acceptance with him.

Upon my enjoyments. What gives a relish to this enjoyment is, that the glorious God shows me something of his glory in it, and that by this good thing I am assisted and comforted in serving him. These considerations will often require to be made, with a particular pause, that shall examine wherein these ends are more particularly answered in my actions and my enjoyments. And then I am so to take my measures therefrom, that if I do not find the ends answered, I am to desist from them.

23. There being some settlements at the eastward, particularly Arrowsick and Brunswick, and some devout persons applying themselves, while they yet want a minister, to carry on exercises of religion among the people there,-I would supply those Christians with instruments of piety suited to their occasions. And since the instruction of the Indians has been begun by some good men there, I would particularly furnish them with instruments for that excellent purpose.

24. Procure a good justice, if it may be, to be commissioned for a distant plantation in the country, on the behalf whereof I am applied unto. 25. Saturday. This day I set apart for prayer with fasting in secret before God.

My errands to heaven were, to obtain the pardon of miscarriages, greater measures of piety and sincerity, the divine conduct and bles sing to my ministry in every part of it, a smile on the offers of my pen unto the public, the good state of my family, the welfare of my son abroad, the favor of heaven to my flock, to the land, and to the British nation, and to my dear brethren who are at work for God in the Low, er Saxony.

I enjoyed most gracious visits from heaven in my devotions. I prayed in the name of my Savior for a nature and a temper comformable unto his, and I prevailed.

When I perceived by the breathings of my soul, that I began to live unto God, Oh, the triumphant joy that I was filled withal to think that now I am assured of everlasting life. This life of God is what never can be destroyed.

7

26. I would seriously consider every article of adversity, that I meet withal, and I would thereupon discover what article of corrup tion in me 'tis designed or adapted for the killing of. I would in the view thereof give a welcome entertainment unto the cross, and joyfully fall in with the intention of it.

VOL. XVI.

44

My thus concurring to the death of my sin will be an infallible sign of a divine life purposed for my soul, yea begun in it.

Would

27. I would continue the public prayers for special occasions, which are mentioned in the bills put up in our congregations, to be more adapted, more expressive, and more useful than heretofore. spend some time in making an exquisite provision for, that purpose. March 1. It may be of great use to the ministers and the colleges, if I can procure the Medicina Mentis of the excellent L-* to be much studied among them: I would use all due means to bring it about. 2. I would exhibit a little sum of money to be bestowed upon such Pads at school as commit to memory the maxims of the everlasting Gospel of

*

3. A miserable man in the prison cries to me for my compassions. I must clothe him, and help him what I can.

4. That sort of prayer, or that elevation of the mind in prayer, which in the Verus Christianismus is called supernatural prayer, is what I would exceedingly aspire unto and grow more experienced in. I would soar towards it in great essays at the sacrificing stroke, which with a self-annihilation will bring me on towards an union with God, and an acquiescence in him and in his will. And when I feel in this way, God becoming all in all to me, I would be entirely swallowed up in him.

5. Let the public prayers in the hearing of the flock take a pathetic notice of the value and longing, which the people gone abroad express, in their letters to us, for the New-England Sabbaths. Manifold may be the good use of this intimation.

7. This day I devoted, (and what sinner on earth has more cause to do so?) unto the exercises of a secret thanksgiving unto the glorious God.

I began the day with considering and acknowledging my answering the character of a mere shadow, before God. Sensible that I am nothing, have nothing, do nothing, but in an entire dependence upon

him.

I confessed before the Lord my exceeding unworthiness of all his favors, and how unworthy I am to be accepted or assisted in his praises. I went over the articles of my vileness with all self-abasement. I entertained my family with meditations on the cxxxviii Psalm; and with them I celebrated the favors of heaven to my family.

⚫ I distinctly adored the divine perfections, and breathed after such dispositions and behavior in myself as they call for.

I beheld each of the three persons in the Godhead shining with all those perfections, and very particularly the God man, who is my Savior. And I triumphed in the enjoyment of such a Savior. I made recognition of my obligations to live unto this glorious God, and be entirely for him; and I proposed the methods wherein I desired forever to glorify him, ascribing at the same time unto my Savior the glory of accomplishing my desires.

Having expatiated upon these things, in the afternoon I went on to recapitulate the former vouchsafements of a gracious God unto me in the course of my life, and then the enjoyments wherewith I am at this

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time favored of the Lord: more particularly, the strange prolongation of my life, with my health restored and strength renewed; my employment in the ministry of the Gospel, and in so large an auditory; and with an utterance bestowed in such a wondrous manner upon me; my marvellous opportunities to be serviceable unto the kingdom of God by way of the press; all the good whereof the sovereign grace of heaven has made me the instrument; the creditable and comfortable circumstances wherewith I am accommodated in my habitation. For my correspondences abroad, especially with the universities of Glasgow and Glauche. For these and such things, I offered my praises unto the glorious God, with humble confessions of my own unworthiness on the several articles, and the triumphs of sovereign grace in them; and seeing the purchase and power of my Savior operating in my arrival to those blessings of goodness.

But oh, the joy of soul, wherewith I then beheld what the Lord has done for my soul. His revealing of his Christ unto me,-bis uniting of me unto his Christ; his pardoning my sins, and making me one of his children, and a temple of the Holy Spirit, and beginning that life in me, that shall never, never, never be extinguished.

I concluded with praises unto the Lord for his good angels, and all the unknown good, which he had by their means conveyed unto me. My finishing dispositions and resolutions were: To grow more frequent in direct, express, explicit acts of living unto God, with reflections on the reason of my doing what I do, and of my relish in my enjoyments. To be more solicitous about a real and vital communion with God in the prayers which I make unto him. To be more industrious in my studies, that I may despatch apace what my hand finds to do. And to visit the flock with more assiduity and edification.

8. Is there no possibility for me to find the time that I may contrive a system of services for students, wherein they shall be rescued from vanity and corruption, and become considerate unto the glorious intention of living unto God and the real and only wisdom? If I see that I cannot obtain the leisure for it, I will address my friends in the University.

11. Those several spaces of time about the well filling whereof I have been solicitous, I will endeavor now more than ever to fill with acts of consecration to God, formed upon the various actions and enjoyments wherein I may be at the time concerned. How gloriously will this fill my life with sacrifices! In what a marvellous light will my walk be carried on. With what influences from above will my mind be revived continually.

12. A number of persons qualified for church fellowship, who have hitherto delayed it, must be called upon.

But O how seriously am I to consider the great flock as consisting of a people, for whom I am to do the best, that they may live unto God, and be directed and quickened and strengthened in the life of God. With solicitude am I to beg of the glorious God, from time to time, that he would lead me to insist on such subjects among this people as

A town of Germany, in the duchy of Magdeburg, adjoining to the town of Halle, but governed by its own magistrates; in which are four seminaries, where the languages, theology, mathematics, music, &c. are taught by 120 preceptors.

may be most adapted to the intentions of piety, and most suitabl to their circumstances. And when I have my subjects under my cul tivation, how industriously must I prosecute then, as if I were imme diately to give an account of my conduct therein to God, the judge a all.

14. Further engines of piety to be conveyed unto my kinsman at Windsor, for him to do good with them.

15. Is there no possibility for me to get the prosecutions and operations of piety into the schools? that the education there may not only have piety intermixed with it, but become the principal intention of it. This would I make a point of much consideration, and be restless till I see a good progress is made in the design.

16. The expired charity school in the middle of the town I would get revived.

19. Oh what shall I render to the Lord? For me to glorify the admirable Savior, and be an instrument for inviting others to believe and confess his glory: this is the very top of my chosen felicity. How strangely am I gratified in it. And yet I hope what now befals me is but the beginning of the gratifications wherewith I shall be favored. I began to be suspicious whether this year would prove to me such a fruitful year as was the last. But I know not what may happen. I am already entered upon fructifications that surely comfort me. A Society of young men in the more southern part of the town solicit a sermon from me. I give them one. And the publication of it is proposed. The title of it is, THE RESORT OF PIETY: Our Savior considered and exhibited as a tree of life, which all may and must resort unto, and an early flight unto it particularly called for. An essay offered unto a society of young men, united in the intentions of early piety.

20. My servant has lately buried his son. Let me make this an occasion of inculcating the admonitions of piety upon him.

22. What more can I do for the church of God, than what I am to endeavor this day, in as efficacious a representation as I can make of its condition in solemn supplications before the Lord?

From the Quarterly Review, No. 44, p. 418.

CRUELTY OF SUPERSTITION IN NEPAUL.

"KEDAR-NATH is one of those numerous shrines, which neither difficulties nor dangers, neither mountain roads nor fierce torrents, nor steep precipices can deter the pilgrim from visiting, in order to perform those duties which are enjoined by the Hindoo religion-a religion which, as Capt. Webb justly observes, seems to delight in practically demonstrating to its deluded votaries, 'that rugged as is the path' to that region of beatitude, to which in fancy they are pressing forward, its ministers endeavor, by every means which human ingenuity can devise, to render it yet more intolerable, by strewing it with additional thorns.

The extraordinary instances of pious frauds and inventions of the priests of Bramha, and the credulity, the fanaticism, and the self-de