+

This desire does not exist in any form of a principle of regular action, except in the mind of a sincere disciple of Jesus Christ. The more knowledge any one has of his own infirmities, the more he dreads the idea of being left forever under their dominion. The more closely he has studied the secrets of his own heart, the more fervently will he pray to be delivered from the body of this death. Each false step shows his continued liability to stumble,and who knows but he may fall, as others, whose prospects of heaven in their own view were bright?— Every examination of his own heart informs him that it is an impure fountain, and he well knows that it sends forth bitter streams. Knowzing this from the incontestible evidence of intuition, while in possesusion of a clear understanding, he can no more doubt of his own native propensity to evil, than he can, in other concerns, doubt of the conanexion between cause and effect.

.1

I have said above, that the apostasies of professed Christians create a trembling anxiety in the breast of the humble disciple. The strongest bonds which confine us to earth are those friends so closely intwined around our hearts, that the web of our destinies seems woven together, and can scarcely be disentangled but with the ruin of themselves and of us. No doubt, it is the disruption of these tender ties, which constitutes a large portion of what is called the bitterness of death. The prospect of such a separation from all that is endearing to our perishing nature, fills many a heart with deep anguish at the thought of the opening grave. Now let the reader look around him, and contemplate some of those frightful wrecks of all that once seemed good and great;—those moving shadows of moral and spiritual death, which fill the places and inhabit the tenements which he once thought the happy abodes of peace-the temples of the living God. Some of them were his bosom friends, with whom he had taken sweet #counsel and walked to the house of God in company. He had united with them in plans of benevolence, and they had seemed to deplore with him the desolations of the moral world, and to endeavor to build the waste places of the church below. When he observes such turn away from the instructions of the Savior,-"go back and walk no more with him" nay become the open advocates of infidelity, and the very champions of Satan; employed to ruin a multitude of souls:when they are seen emphatically crucifying the Son of God afresh, and the poor trembling soul, that, waiting and watching for the hour of his dismission, sees one and another fall, whom he had accompanied almost through this desert, and remembers how ardently, and how long, he had hoped to meet them in white robes before the throne of God and the Lamb, and is obliged to exchange that hope for absolute despair of their salvation, it is too much for a mortal frame to endure. Such a spectacle and such contemplations can be suitably sustained by nothing less than a purified spirit, which, admitted once beyond the threshold of heaven, has strengthened its vision by viewing the glories the Deity unveiled. Well indeed may such a heart, while almost bursting with grief at the ruins now scattered around it, exclaim, “I would not" cannot "live always." Z. Y.

VOL. XVI.

57

EXTRACTS FROM THE DIARY OF THE REV. COTTON MATHER.

(Continued from p. 407.)

April 12. As soon as I can, I would prepare certain proposals about the methods of a religious education in schools and universities: the methods to be used, that the young people may be taught and brought to live unto God. The publication and inculcation of these proposals I would then labor in. Vast may be the consequences.

13. I would move among the Commissioners for Indian affairs, who have a strange dullness upon all their managements, that they would appoint two or three of their number, persons of singular activity and capacity, to receive proposals for the good proceeding of our affairs, and to prepare and offer what they think proper for the Board; and have their times of consulting with one another, upon that intention. 15. That I may yet more distinctly walk in the light, I would make a catalogue of my chief enjoyments, and I would upon each of them see how they are to be enjoyed in God, and for God, and with holy reference to God. I would make it my care to place my delight in them upon these considerations.

16. The children of the flock:-I would endeavor, in my catechising, to teach them the skill of living unto God. At the next catechising would preach to them on the dead child raised by the prophet.

17. One of my religious friends has some exercises, which oblige me to treat her very much, on the subject of having a soul wherein God alone shall be enthroned, and all the creatures that have usurped his throne be expelled and banished; and as having a will utterly annihilated before the will of God.

19. Quere, Whether the marvellous footsteps of Divine Providence, in what has been done in the Lower Saxony, have not such a voice to the world, that I may do well to think of some further methods to render it more sensible to these American Colonies. The voice is mainly that in Matt. vi, 33.

20. A society of pious and praying youths at the college I will study which way I may be useful to.

April 21. Saturday. I set apart this day for the sacrifices of a fast in secret before the Lord; and the Holy One helped me to offer up a variety of sacrifices. Yea, with his help I singled out my most valuable enjoyments, and the thing which my heart is most of all set upon, and I turned them into sacrifices. I consented unto the will of my dear Savior, if he will have those things to be denied unto me. My errands unto heaven this day were much the same with what I had on my former days of later times.

But I have one special and better concern to carry, not only on this day, but every day, unto the Lord. I have advice that my poor son Increase lies very sick at - having lost the use of his limbs. Oh the anguish with which I am to cry unto God, that he would yet be gracious to this poor child, and make him a new creature, and an useful man, and return him unto me. Oh, the resignation to which I am called on this occasion. My Father, I commit this poor child into thy fatherly hands.

22. I would now, more than ever, employ the minutes I can recover for such an exercise, in forming the acts of a sacrificer, upon all my dearest and most valuable enjoyments, and snatch at all opportunities for sacrificing with a soul full of unspeakable satisfaction. God will dwell with me and in me, while this is my way of living.

23. In conversing with the people of the flock, let me find out what subject they most wish to hear publicly insisted on.

26. I foresee an opportunity for me to do some notable services in my correspondence with the Danish Missionaries at Tranquebar.

27. I will make a present unto our poor College, of certain books, that are of great improvement and influence in the famous Frederician University, and of a tendency to correct the present wretched methods of education there.

29. The most perfect work of Christianity will very much appear in the strength of piety which carries us well through our duties towards our neighbors. I would therefore spend some time, in considering what are those points of piety, wherein my good carriage towards my neighbors will argue a great and high improvement in the love of God, and conformity to my Savior, and be restless till I come unto them.

May 3d. I have had many thoughts about writing a book of the Christian Ascetics. My experience therein has been of so great variety, that I may do well to consider what account should be given of the talent.

5. There is a lad who is an orphan, an hopeful child. I would become solicitous for his education. Yea, I will take him, and feed him, and lodge him in my own family.

What remains for me, but to make a very holy improvement of some late dispensations of Providence which I have been called to sustain: In what a holy, humble, and trembling manner am I now to walk before the Lord! How much must I watch over my own heart, Jest any unholy frame should come upon it. How much must a praying life be more than ever encouraged and maintained with me. O my God, I will call upon thee as long as I live.

7. Some things of importance for the good order of the church must be settled. I will speedily appoint a meeting of the church for that purpose, and look up to God for his direction.

11. I will get certain books, which I think may be of great use for the increase of piety in the college, into the hands of the students there. 13. My morning prayers are not so managed as to carry me into a sufficient communion with God. I must think of some way to bring more fire from heaven into the sacrifices of the morning. But I am nothing; and must entirely resign myself to the conduct and the quickening of God.

15. I have my days of prayer. Why should I not allow each of my children successively, a singular share in the supplications of the day: And then, on that day, take that child, who is more peculiarly concerned in the supplications, and have the presence of that child with me a part of the day, to be a witness of my desires for him, and to hear the counsels and warnings I may on this occasion give unto him,

16. A remote kinsman who is a scholar at the College, must have some cultivations from me upon the intentions of piety and usefulness. 19. Saturday. This day I set apart for prayer with fasting, on such occasions, and with such exercises, as on my former days: But specially, to commit the case of my poor son Increase unto the fatherly care of God:-to obtain a return of health unto my daughter:-and a direction in some weighty affairs before me.

20. It is a necessary point of piety, for me in my dealings with my neighbor, to exhibit a resemblance of the benignity expressed by the glorious God, in his dealings with me. I would pursue the contemplation of this point, till I have understood and obtained it.

22.

This day my son Increase returns to me much improved, and, as I hope, better than ever disposed. And which is wonderful, with an excellent business prepared for him immediately to fall into. I am astonished at the favors of the prayer-hearing Lord. O, my Father, my Father, how good a thing is it to trust in thy fatherly care.

But oh what shall I now do, to fix the returned child for the service of God.

24. I am not without hope of getting a congregation of Dissenters revived in New York. Let me prosecute the design.

27. In the last week, through the spite of one particular man, I had the indignity put upon me of being set aside from a public service, which people generally expected from me. On this and the like occasions, I would glorify my Savior with a sweet acquiescence in his wisdom and justice, and his having all my opportunities of service at his disposal. And with rejoicing in every instance of hopeful conformity to him, who was despised and rejected of men, and with a pleasure, as well as patience, in seeing my brethren preferred before me.

31. A variety of services to be done. It is the anniversary convention of the ministers. In my repeated prayers with them, I have an opportunity to utter impressive things. I carry through the affair of an address to the king, which may be of use to our United Brethren, as well as to ourselves. I propose a motion in the assembly;-that no family in the country be without a Bible, and a catechism; that all children of a certain age be found able to read; and that there be inspections for this purpose.

June 3. The jejune performances, with which I find the people of God sometimes entertained by some of the ministers, afford me an opportu nity to labor for some suitable dispositions.

I must beware of despising my brethren. I must value the least savor of piety in them, when I perceive the absence of other excellencics. I must consider myself as more worthy to be despised than they, on accounts unknown to the world. I must apprehend all men and myself, to be no other than what the sovereign God of all grace does please to make us. All expressions and sentiments of a most profound humility are proper on these occasions.

4. O that more of religion in carnest, were to be found in the flock. What shall I do to produce it?

8. Among the Commissioners for the Indian affairs, there are several things to be prosecuted; especially a Monitor for communicants.

10. It will be a proper vigilance in me, to make ready for some events and changes, which may suddenly come upon me; and to get an heart prepared, established, and fortified, for an encounter with them.

11. For this purpose, I prepare a discourse, to be also handed unto the flock, whereof 1 am the servant.

12. My two elder daughters are sick. God calls me to consider what may be his voice to my family, in this dispensation, and bring my family to a compliance with it.

For the Panoplist.

ON THE FLUCTUATIONS OF PROPERTY, AND THE INCREASE

SPECULATION.

OF

CAREFUL observers of mankind must sometimes be astonished at the surprising rapacity shown in the struggle for wealth by those restless minds, which make this world all and eternity nothing. The astonishment cannot be much diminished, when they contemplate the dreadful reverses which overtake the very persons who have rioted in luxury, at the moment while they were estimating their supply of means as inexhaustible. The entire change of circumstances which meets them in the midst of their career of pleasure and crime,—the awful extremities to which they proceed, for escaping, as they vainly imagine, the reach of sorrow;-should furnish a solemn admonition to the successful children of affluence. A serious lesson also should thence be drawn by others, who now move in the humble walks of life, or who are discontented with the solid advantages of mediocrity.

The mortifying truth, which infuses a portion of bitterness into all the cups of money-getting beings, is, that "riches take to themselves wings and fly away." Could they flatter themselves, that the idolized possession were secured to them and their posterity through an indefinite series of years, there would be more reason in attaching a large estimate to their possessions. But the single consideration, that wealth cannot be secured to one's self, much less to his surviving friends, stamps the eager pursuit of it with an appearance of indescribable infatuation. Yet, such is the perverseness of the human mind, that this specific circumstance, the instability of fortune, seems to produce an effect directly contrary from that which right reason would lead us to suspect. Because property often changes masters, those possessing a competence expect that they shall soon fill their coffers with abundance: the man now poor, supposes it likely that he is to be one of those favored personages, on whom a flood of riches will presently be poured in as profusely, as if rained from the clouds. If he reckons on the manner in which this longed for change is to happen, or the means of its production, he fixes on some of those strange reverses by which many are ruined to produce the aggrandizement of one. Thus it happens that in morals, as in domestic economy, men convert the means of cure, or of health, into a fatal poison. The very intimations of a kind Providence, designed to guard them from danger, they so misconstrue, as to make them direct conductors into danger: They distort the words and misinterpret the plain instructions of