fuch fins; but all was in vain. I at last faid to her, May you may depend upon it, if it is proved to be you, I fhall shew you no mercy, and be sure your sin will find you out.

After having faid fo much, and the perfifted in denying it, I reflected on my felf, that I had faid any thing to her. This was much on my mind all the evening, and first the next morning, which caufed me to be earnest at the throne of grace, that, if I had accufed her wrongfully, that the harth words above, (I will fhew you no mercy) might be forgiven me; but that if fhe was guilty fhe might confefs. After returning thanks for the favours of the past night, I recommended myfelf and family to the Divine protection..

This morning, as ufual, I went into the fields, and after returning home, breakfaft not being ready, I took a book to read, and as it is my cuftom when reading, not to stop to afk a bleffing until I get to a period, fo it was this morning. Perhaps the breakfast might wait two minutes, which led to the difcovery of the plot; my fifter, waiting for me, ftirred her tea, and in a furprize faid, "My tea is just like poifon, it has changed my fpoon juft like copper." At this I inftantly flopt, and stirred up mine, and found it to be the fame.

It ftruck us both that fomething must be put in the water, tea, or fugar, which we found to be in the latter, and which plainly appeared to be mercury, broken small, and mixed with it. For the proof of this, I picked out fome of the largest pieces and put them into a cup. I broke about the fame quantity of mercury and put it into another cup, then put a spoon in each, and filled them both with boiling water, which changed the spoons to the copper colour before mentioned. For further proof, I picked from the fugar fome more pieces and gave them to a hen, which foon put an end to her life.--The fugar with the mercury in it I have now by me; which I keep as a token of the Lord's mercy. Reader, may this providence remind us of the wickedness of the human heart when left to itself, and make us watchful over leffer fins, which, if given way to, lead to greater; as an old divine remarks, "If the ferpent wind in his head, he will draw in his whole body after." May it alfo encourage us to put our truft in that God who hears and anfwers prayer!

THE BENEFIT OF RELIGIOUS SOCIETY.

IT

is obfervable of many houfes in the city of London, that they have fuch weak walls, and are of fuch a flender and flight building, that were they fet alone in the fields, probably they would not ftand one hour; which now ranged into ftreets, receive fupport in themfelves, and mutually return it to others. Such is the danger of Solitude, and the great benefit of Society, with good and godly company. Such as want fkill or boldness to begin or fet a pfalm, may competently follow tune in consort with others; and fuch are the bleffed fruits of good society, that a perfon may not only be preserved from much mifchief, but also be strengthened and confirmed in many fpiritual exercifes, which he could not perform of himself alone. "Jerufalem is builded as a city that is compact together."*

SATAN'S CHARGE, AND THE SINNER'S DISCHARGE.

N old author mentions a ftory of the devil's appear

Aing to a dying man, and thewing him a parchment roll,

which was very long, wherein were written on every fide the fins of the poor fick man, very many in number. There were written the idle words he had spoken, which made up three quarters of the words he had fpoken in his life; together with the false words, the unchaste words, and angry words; afterwards came in rank his vain and ungodly words; and lastly, his actions, digefted according to the commandments; whereupon Satan faid, "See here, thy virtues: fee here what thy examination must be ;" but the poor man anfwered, "It is true, Satan, but thou haft not fet down all; for thou fhouldeft have added, and fet down here below, "the blood of Jefus Chrift cleanfeth us from all fins ;" and this alfo fhould not have been forgotten, "That whofo"ever believeth in him, fhall not perish, but have everlast"ing life;" whereupon the devil vanifhed.

Thus, if the devil fhould mufter up all our fins, and fet them in order before us, yet let but Chrift be named in a believing way, and he will yield, and flee from us with the greateft fpeed. The Captain of Salvation overcame the tempter, by faying, "It is thus and thus written;" and his foldiers may still overcome the accufer of the brethren, by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their teftimony."

THE LOSS OF THE SOUL IRRECOVERABLE.

ST

T. CHRYSOSTOME hath well obferved with the anatomifts, Omnia Deus dedit duplicia, God hath, in the frame of man's body, given him two eyes, two ears, two hands, two feet, and the like, that the failing of the one might be fupplied by the other: Animam vero unam. Yet he hath given him, faith he, but one soul; fo that if that be lost, there is no fupply to be had. Nebuchadnezzar may lofe his kingdom, and it may be restored. Job, his health and wealth, and they may be recovered. Larzarus, his life, and he may be revived. But for the loss of the soul, no means can repair it; no price can redeem it; all the world cannot recompence it; being once loft, it is loft irrecoverably.

THE

SELECT SENTENCES.

HE Spirit is Chrift's Adminiftrator by the Father and Son's appointment, and will be fure to give every foul what Chrift has left them in his will and teftament.

A perfon may get into a church without Chrift, but he cannot get into heaven without him. Heaven is a believer's end and holiness his way.

A true Chriftian may be in a spiritual lethargy; senseless of fin, when he is not dead in fin.

Some true Chriftians may commit thofe fins which a wicked man doth not, and yet go to heaven; and a wicked man may do fome good which every godly man doth not, and yet go to hell.

ON THE OBSERVANCE OF THE SABBATH.

"For a Day in thy Courts is better than a Thousand.". Psalm. lxxxiv. 10.

F all the inftances of Almighty Love which fwell the heart, and attune the tongue of the real Christian, there are few that call more loudly for his gratitude than the divine appointment of one day in feven on which he can retire from the bufy fcenes of life, in which the fupport of a feeble body obliges him to engage, and enter into the facred temple: and into the more immediate prefence of Him, "whofe loving kindness is better than life itself."

In the common intercourse of civil fociety, he is often under the painful neceffity of mingling with those who love not his God, who are strangers to the refined delights of religion, and feel no defire after the enjoyments of that country for which he pants, and towards which he is constantly advancing. With what rapture then ought he to behold the dawn of that bleffed day which gives him an opportunity of withdrawing from fuch connexions, and spending his time in fweet communion with the God who is, indeed, (to use the animated language of a poet, whofe memory will ever be dear to the chriftian world)

"The fource of all his joys,
"The life of his delights."

WATTS.

Now he finds in the house of the Moft High an anticipation of thofe fublime delights which he trufts he shall enter into the full enjoyment of, when the ftream of time shall have conveyed him into the boundlefs ocean of eternity and, while every faculty of his foul is employed in contemplating the wonders of redeeming love, its tumultuous paffions are hushed into filence, and tranquility; and he enjoys in a copious measure that peace to which the breast of the worldling is a total stranger. He ferves not his God with the fear of a flave, but he bows before him with the reverential love of a dutiful child, to the best of fathers; and therefore he feels the truth of the affertion that the fervice of the Lord is perfect freedom.

And can it be that any who profefs to be difciples of the bleffed Jefus, can voluntarily confent to lofe any part of this joyful day? Will they not think that perfon one of their worst enemies who would rob them even of one of these blissful hours? Thus, indeed, fhould we conclude, if sad experience did not teach us that fuch conclufion would, in too many inftances, be wrong. When we take a view, on the morning of the fabbath, of many places of public worship, both in the establishment, and out of it, does not truth oblige us to say that the thinnefs of the congregations indicates a fpirit very different from that of the pious Pfalmift, when he cried out 66 my foul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord?" How is it that fo many feats are to be seen vacant, fo many whole pews empty on that part of the day, when the body, after the refreshing repofe of the night, is certainly beft fitted for action, and the powers of the mind moft in frame for the lively exercifes of devotion; and when the protection which we have received during the filent hours of darkness ought to infpire our hearts with gratitude and our lips with praife? My fellow chriftian, my brother, my fifter in the gofpel, let me call upon you to be careful that you are never, in future, chargeable with fuch blameable negligence; be it your ftudy to improve every moment of the fabbath, which, for ought you can tell, may be your laft, to the glory of your God, and the benefit of your immortal foul. While numbers pervert this facred season to the indulgence of the most criminal indolence, may you be enabled early in the morning to direct your prayer unto God for a bleffing upon yourfelf and friends; and for divine aid, and fupport for the paftor whom Providence has placed over you then, fummoning your children, or families together, chearfully fay to them, "Come and let us go up unto the houfe of the Lord;" fo fhall your fouls be fweetly prepared to praise and magnify his name; to fupplicate his mercy, and attend with ferioufnefs to his word. And you will prove to all that you are not among the unhappy number who give fad evidence that they love their bodies more than their fouls; but they would do well to think before it is too late, whether the excufes with which they pacify their confciences now, will ftand them in ftead when they appear at a future day before the tribunal of a righteous Judge.

C Thou who art the Shepherd of thy people, and the delight of all who truft in thec, vouchfafe to liften to the fupplication of the unworthieft of all thy fervants. Arife, O thou Sun of righteoufncfs! Arife, and fliine upon thy church, and melt into love the fupine and lukewarm affections which