MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS.

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EXTRACT FROM DR. DWIGHT.

HAVE been much struck in reading the following passage from Dr. Dwight's Lectures, in which he accounts for the origin of the divine honours paid to Noah in the early ages of the world. It is forcible and just; and will be found still more so, if applied to account for the elevation of our Saviour to the rank of Deity. High veneration for any being, easily slides, in such minds as ours, into religious reverence: especially when it is publicly and solemnly expressed by ceremonies of an affecting and awful nature. When Noah, particularly, and his sons generally, had been often, and for a series of years, commemorated in this manner; the history of man has amply taught us, that it was no strange thing to find them ultimately raised to the rank and character of deities. This event would naturally take place the sooner, on account of the astonishing facts included in their singular history. The imagination, wrought up to enthusiasm and terror, while realizing the astonishing scenes through which they had passed, could hardly fail to lend its powerful aid towards this act of canonization, and would, without much reluctance, attribute to them a divine character. If we remember how much more willingly mankind have ever worshipped false gods, than the True One; we shall, I think without much hesitation, admit the probability of the account, which has been here given concerning this subject."

COMPLAINTS OF A CORRUPT HEART.

To hear some Christians talk, one would imagine they thought it their duty, and a mark of sincerity and goodness, to be always complaining of corrupt and desperately wicked hearts, and consequently that they ought to have, or in fact should always have, such hearts to complain of. But let no man deceive himself. A wicked and corrupt heart is too dangerous a thing to be trifled with. I would not here be thought to discourage the humble sentiments every man should have of himself, under our present infirmities: But we may greatly wrong ourselves by a false humility; and whoever carefully peruseth the New Testament will find, that, however we are obliged to repent of sin, a spirit of

complaining and bewailing is not the spirit of the gospel; neither is it any rule of true religion, nor any mark of sincerity, to have a corrupt heart, or to be always complaining of such a heart. No: the gospel is intended to deliver us from all iniquity, and to purify us into a peculiar people zealous of good works, to sanctify us throughout in body, soul and spirit, that we may now be saints, may now have peace and joy in the Holy Ghost, and at length be presented without spot or blemish before the presence of God. Christ loved the church, and gave himself for it, not that it might continue groaning in a state of corruption and wickedness, but that he might, even in this world, sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water, by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. And this is the invariable sense of revelation. Nevertheless

it is manifestly true, that while we are in the body we shall be exercised with the infirmities and passions thereof. But this is not our corruption or wickedness, but the trial of our virtue and holiness in resisting and subduing every irregular appetite. And it is the real character of every true Christian, not that he feels he has a corrupt and wicked heart, but that he crucifieth the flesh with the affections and lusts, and perfecteth holiness in the fear of the Lord. A real Christian may say, my heart is weak, and my passion strong: but he is no real Christian, or the gospel hath not had its proper effects upon him, if he cannot at the same time truly say, I resist and restrain my passions, and bring them into captivity to the laws of reason and true holiness. Whatever is evil and corrupt in us we ought to condemn; not so as that it shall STILL remain in us; that we may ALWAYS be condemning it; but, that we may SPEEDILY reform, and be EFRECTUALLY delivered from it; otherwise certainly we do not come up to the character of the disciples of Jesus Christ.

J. Taylor on Original Sin.

DR. BEATTIE'S METHOD OF BEGINNING THE RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION OF HIS SON.

THE doctrines of religion I wished to impress on his mind, as soon as it might be prepared to receive them; but I did not see the propriety of making him commit to memory theological sentences. or any sentences, which it was not possible for him to understand. And I was desirous to make a trial how far his own reason could go in tracing out, with a little direction, the great and first principle of all religion, the being of GOD. The follow.

ing fact is mentioned, not as a proof of superiour sagacity in him (for I have no doubt that most children would in like circumstances think as he hid), but merely as a moral or logical experiment.

He had reached his fifth [or sixth] year, knew the alphabet, and could read a little; but had received no particular information with respect to the Author of his being because I thought he could not yet understand such information; and because I had learned from my own experience, that to be made to repeat words not understood is extremely detrimental to the faculties of a young mind. In a corner of a little garden, without informing any person of the circumstance, I wrote in the mould, with my finger, the three initial letters of his name; and, sowing garden cresses in the furrows, covered up the seed, and smoothed the ground. Ten days after, he came running to me, and with astonishment in his countenance told me, that his name was growing in the garden. I smiled at the report, and seemed inclined to disregard it; but he insisted on my going to see what had happened. Yes, said I, carelessly, on coming to the place, I see it is so ; but there is nothing in this worth notice; it is mere chance and I went away. He followed me, and, taking hold of my coat, said with some earnestness, it could not be mere chance; for that some body must have contrived matters so as to produce it.-I pretend not to give his words, or my own, for I have forgotten both; but I give the substance of what passed between us in such language as we both understood.-So you think, I said, that what appears so regular as the letters of your name cannot be by chance. Yes, said he, with firmness, I think so. Look at yourself, I replied, and consider your hands and fingers, your legs and feet, and other limbs; are they not regular in their appearance, and useful to you? He said, they were. Came you then hither, said I, by chance? No, he answered, that cannot be ; something must have made me. And who is that something, I asked. He said, he did not know. (I took particular notice, that he did not say, as Rousseau fancies a child in like circumstances would say, that his parents made him.) I had now gained the point I aimed at and saw, that his reason taught him, (though he could not so express it) that what begins to be must have a cause, and that what is formed with regularity must have an intelligent cause. I therefore told him the name of the Great Being who made him and all the world; concerning whose adorable nature I gave him such information as I thought he could in some measure comprehend. The lesson affected him greatly, and he never forgot either it, or the circumstances that introduced it.

Life of J. H. Beattie.

FOR THE CHRISTIAN DISCIPLE.

LINES ADDRESSED TO A LOVELY INFANT, EXPIRING IN ITS FATHER'S

ARMS.

Go, gentle spirit, haste away,
From painful scenes of sin and woe,
Of sickness, sorrow, and decay,
To realms of joy, unknown below.
Dear, lovely babe, thy parent's heart
Would still detain thee lingering here;
But Jesus calls thee to depart ;

His friendly summons thou must hear.
"Let little children come to me,
"Forbid them not :" the Saviour cried;
"Like these must every mortal be,
Who would in heaven with me abide."

O happy soul! unstained with sin,
In robes of innocence arrayed,
Thy heavenly joys will soon begin,
No more with cares or griefs allayed.
August 2, 1821.

REVIEW.

ARTICLE VIII.

Sermons, chiefly of a Practical Nature. By the late ANTHONY FORSTER, A. M. Pastor of the second Independent Church in Charleston, S. C. To which is prefixed a Memoir of the Author's Life. Raleigh, N. C. J. Gales, 1821. pp. 335.

THE biography prefixed to these sermons is one of the most interesting articles, which has lately come under our notice. Whoever values religious freedom, and the virtues of independence, uprightness, and resolution; whoever loves to contemplate a mind depending on its own resources, and sustained by its own energies, throwing off the shackles of early prejudice, resisting the calls of worldly interest, and boldly searching for

truth, will read this narrative with no common satisfaction. We have room only for a brief and imperfect sketch, and shall confine ourselves more particularly to such parts as speak of Mr. Forster's conversion to the unitarian faith, and the circumstances of his connexion with the second Independent Church of Charleston.

He was born in North Carolina, in the year 1785, and educated at the University in that state. His father died during his childhood, and he was sent by his guardian, at twelve years of age to the preparatory school attached to the University. He passed through the collegiate course, and graduated five years afterwards.

At the solicitation of his friends he chose the profession of the law, and commenced the study. He did not, however, pursue it long, nor with much eagerness, for it seems never to have been congenial with his inclination and feelings. Even at this period he was more often seen with books of theology, than such as pertained to his adopted profession. His health, also, began to decline, and his sedentary and studious habits were evidently making rapid inroads upon a constitution naturally delicate and frail.

Admonished by these growing symptoms, and swayed by the wishes of his friends, he resolved to pursue a more active course of life, as the only probable means of restoring and preserving his health. With this view he was induced to accept an Ensign's commission in the army of the United States. He was stationed on the western frontier of Georgia, where he was promoted to a lieutenancy, and remained somewhat more than two years. He finally resigned his commission, and left the army. Being now without employment, and in a great measure without resources, he resumed the study of the law, under the direction of a practitioner in Milledgeville, Georgia. In this place he was attacked with a complaint, which, by the mismanagement of his physician, terminated in a violent nervous fever. It reduced him exceedingly, and was the origin of the disease, which finally wasted his frame and hastened his dissolution.

After a partial recovery from this sickness, he found himself too feeble to commence again his studies. He returned to his friends in North Carolina with the intention of travelling to the north; but in Virginia he had a relapse, and the season was so far advanced, that it was thought adviseable for him not to pursue his journey. He accordingly returned again to his friends, and on the invitation of his former guardian, Governor Smith, of North Carolina, he accepted the office of his private secretary. New Series-vol. III.

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