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with those anxieties, fears, and distressing convictions, which prepare the way for the work of grace, he became deeply sensible of his inexcusable criminality, and of the perfect righteousness of God in his condemnation. After that his mind was enlightened in the knowledge of Christ, and his heart filled with peace by an experimental discovery of gospel mercy. He manifested those new views and affections, which are the fruit of regenerating grace. The Bible appeared to him a new book, full of light and glory in every part. Those representations of God and divine objects, which once occasioned gloomy and painful feelings, gave him the most pure and substantial satisfaction. He loved religious retirement, and also greatly delighted in public worship. That preaching, which brings down the loftiness of man, and makes Christ all in all, best suited the renewed temper of his heart. Though for several years he enjoyed much tranquillity and heavenly delight in communion with God his Saviour, he afterwards had seasons of anxiety and doubt. He

THE FIRE-FLY.

deeply lamented his wandering thoughts, and his spiritual dulness. These inward struggles and affiictions led him to a more thorough acquaintance with his own depravity, and his dependence on infinite mercy. His own experience abundantly taught him, that without Christ he could do nothing. His habitual acknowledgment was; "by the grace of God I am what I am." His outward deportment corresponded with his inward frame. Says a judicious friend, who was intimately acquainted with him; "never did I know the man who showed more of the spirit of a Christian than he did; and as he approached nearer to the heavenly world, the more holy and heavenly he appeared." A Christian, so exemplary and pious, must have been beloved and useful in life, and deserves to be lamented in death.

In this town, on the 13th inst. the Rev. SAMUEL STILLMAN, D.D. Pastor of the First Baptist Church, in the 70th year of his age, and the 43d of his ministry. We shall insert some particulars respecting this eminent minister in our next Number.

Poetry.

LITTLE rambler of the night,
Where and whence thy glowing light?
Is it form'd of evening dew,
Where and whence thy brilliant hue?
Hark! methinks a voice replies,
He that form'd the azure skies,
Great in least, and good to all,
Lord of man and insect small;
He it was, that made this vest ;
Search, adore nor know the rest.

Little rambler of the night

Blessed be this voice of thine!
He that cloth'd thy form in light
Is thy God as well as mine!

Go enjoy in verdant fields,
What his royal bounty yields;
Nip the leaf or taste the flower;
Sip in nature's roseate bower;
Filling full the span that's given,
With the boons of gracious Heav'n.
Amer. Museum.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

A review of Dr. Lathrop's fourth volume of sermons has been received, but is necessarily deferred till next month.

We have received a well written biographical sketch of the late Rev. Oaks Shaw, whose death we noticed in our last No. This sketch is highly honorary to the ministerial character of the deceased. Its insertion is necessari. ly postponed for the present. An interview with the author is requested. Candidus is just received, but is toote for this month.

Pastor's concluding number on the importance of a general association of Congregational ministers is received, and shall appear in our next. Those who feel concerned for the union and prosperity of our churches, we doubt not will read this excellent essay with interest, and we hope with conviction. ERRATUM. In the Panoplist for January, page 373.-Thesis I. Read as follows-There are certain external works, &c.-which use, or are wont solent) sometimes to be freely done, &c.

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REFLECTIONS ON THE LIFE OF MR. WILLIAM HOWARD.

Messrs. Editors,

WHAT I here send you is taken from a pamphlet, containing some remarkable passages in the life of Mr. William Howard, who died at North Ferriby, in the county of York, (Eng.) March 2, 1804, by JOSEPH MILNER, A. M. late master of the grammar school of Kingston upon Hull, and vicar of Trinity church.*

He first relates the remarkable conversion of Mr. Howard, who was one of his parishioners. "His conversion was very similar to that of Col. Gardiner; not so striking in some circumstances, but equally solid." From the greatest profaneness, sensuality, and blasphemy, he was raised to the love and practice of Christian virtue and piety. The events of divine providence, and especially the preaching and conversation of Mr. Milner, were used by the Divine Spirit, as the

Readers may not all know what celebrity Mr. Milner has obtained by the excellent Church History, which he has lately published; of which, it is hoped, there will soon be an American edition. No. 11. Vol. II.

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means of awakening and convincing him, and of bringing him to the saving knowledge of Christ. In pointing out the excellence of his renewed character, Mr. Milner mentions, 1. His uncommon religious joy. "Wonder, gratitude, and love were the constant effusions of his soul, whenever he spoke of the Most High. His language was a continued series of blessing and praise, and that not in a formal manner, but with spontaneous ease and liberal dignity of mind." 2. His godly fear. Amidst the overflowings of his joy, he retained a constant fear of sin. His remembrance of what he had been, and still might be, if left to himself, had an evident tendency to temper his joy, and to preserve all his affections in their due equilibrium. 3. The strength and simplicity of his faith. 4. His love. His affections were eyer on the wing towards God, equally lively and steady. He ardently loved the saints, and even panted for the conversion of sinners. 5. Chastity. This is particularly mentioned, because

"his soul had been the sink of uncleanness." He had few rivals in impurity, whether in word or deed. But after his conversion, no man was more pure, chaste, sober, and decent in his whole deportment. If he ever spoke of past scenes of folly, it was in the language of the deepest abhorrence and self humiliation. 6. Humility.

In pointing out the defects of Mr. Howard's character, Mr. Milner shows the admirable candour and impartiality of his heart. This is a branch of biography too little attended to by those, who write the lives of eminent Christians. "It seems to me useful," says Mr. Milner, "to show the whole of the character; and as this is evidently the divine method of procedure in the Scripture, all apology is superseded."

Mr. Milner closes with a chapter of reflections, from which the following are extracted. They are such as we should expect from this admired author.

"It is high time to ask the reader, what he thinks of the foregoing narrative, and to desire him to reflect what is the most probable mode of accounting for the extraordinary scenes which we have reviewed. Extraordinary it must be confessed they are; and, as a rational creature was the subject of them, and they issued in a lasting moral alteration of his principles and conduct, any person who judges seriously of the importance of -events, and who feels with a proper degree of regard for the good of the human species, will overlook at once the political insignificance, both of the subject and of the author of these me

moirs, and will own that nothing in the brilliant course of public affairs deserves half the attention.

"Let us state to our minds what is certain in these transactions. Here is an human being immersed in uncommon vice and profligacy, even to the decline of life. The force of habit has strength ened his passions in evil, by such a constant and uncontrolled course of indulgence, that, humanly speaking, his reformation is to be despaired of; the pow ers of conscience are, as it were, obliterated, and nothing remains within him, that seems capable of making the least head against the abounding torrent of iniquity: yet is this man, without any philosophical aids and reflections, suddenly, as in a moment, from a state of extreme insensibility, alarmed, awakened, changed in the whole bent of his affections, solidly, and abidingly altered in his whole deportment, and lives all the remainder of his days, a course of some years, a life of the most pious regard to his Maker, of the strictest chastity and temperance towards himself, and of the most genuine charity towards all mankind. Thus far, plain matter of fact lies before the reader. Had the story been told of a person living in China or Japan, it might have been said by some, with a sagacious sneer, that the writer had taken care to draw his narrative from a convenient distance; but the story here submitted to the reader's attention, lies within the compass of every one's means of information. I flatter myself its truth will not be disputed by any; and should any really doubt of it, I can easi

ly supply them with abundant means of satisfying themselves.

"1. The first reflection which naturally occurs here then, is, what sort of doctrine, or what method, was made use of in the production of so admirable a change? because on all hands it will be allowed, that many are in the same dreadful circumstances, in point of morality, and it would be very much worth while to try the same medicines upon them.

"It would be a very absurd and unreasonable method of eluding the force of this whole business to say, "there seems nothing so very strange or extraordinary in it. The man took a sudden and strong resolution to alter his life; and it was a very happy circumstance that he stuck to the resolution; and this is the whole mystery of the matter." Such careless thoughts are extremely suitable to the sceptical and superficial taste of the day. Such an answer I remember * was made to a person, whose moral change was no less extraordinary than that of Mr. Howard, when he had told his story to a person of some eminence in this kingdom. But surely such random observations prove nothing but the supine indifference of those who make them. No doubt all moral changes must be attended with some resolutions of the person concerned, because the will of man must necessarily be interested in them. But the difficulty is, how to account for it, that a person so circumstanced should ever

This fact I had from the person himself, who is now living, and is a very respectable clergymen in the metropolis.

come to make such powerful resolutions, or to have his will so disposed. To say that he does it by his will or resolution, no more accounts for the change, than to say, that it will account for a man's taking a journey to such a place, that he walked with his feet thither.

"The doctrines which Mr. Howard espoused, and to the force of which alone upon his heart he was ever ready to ascribe the change which took place in his whole man, were JUSTIFICATION and REGENERATION. I use these two terms for the sake of conciseness, as I see no reason why Christian divinity, low, very low indeed, and perfectly contemptible as it appears in the eyes of polite and fashionable people at this day, should not be allowed the use of comprehensive and convenient expressions, as well as other sciences. By the doctrine of Justification is meant, the particular method laid down in the Scripture of honourably acquitting sinful men before their God, through the atonement or righteousness of Jesus Christ, without the least regard had to their works or deservings, Rom. iii. 22-27. On the contrary it is supposed, that the man who is to be the subject of Christian justification, is a condemned sinner in himself, deserving only the wrath of God, and too deeply involved in guilt to be ever extricated by any merit of his own. This doctrine implies the character of the Supreme Being to be inflexibly holy and just, and makes room for the surprising display of his infinite mercy by the substitution of his only begotten Son, at once to satisfy divine

Justice, to condemn sin, and to exhibit the purest discoveries of the most unbounded goodness. The reader has seen the influence of all this on Mr. Howard's mind. His distress of soul began with these very ideas of the divine purity and justice, as signally to be displayed on the last judgment-day, and his peace and comfort were at length as suddenly effected, by the discovery of the doctrine of Justification by Jesus Christ merely through faith, as above explained. Certain it is, that the great outlines of his change depended on this doctrine, scripturally understood, in connexion with its just dependencies. It was no smooth harangue on the moral fitness of things, or on the native beauty of virtue, or on the dignity of human nature, or on the arbitrary mercy of God, to the exclu sion of his justice and purity, that had the least concern on his moral alteration. Such schemes and views may please the taste of corrupt mankind, and many would think them far more like, ly to have effected the change, than a doctrine so simple, and so contrary to men's natural no tions. Deo alner visum. No such happy effects have ever been the consequence of such lectures; but the instances of solid benefit derived from the Christian doctrine of Justification are innumerable.

"The other great Christian doctrine, which he as sincerely embraced, and which he ever looked on as of vast influence in all his religious concerns, is Regeneration. This doctrine implies man, all men without exception, to be naturally in a

state of extreme depravation, needing an entire renovation in all their affections and faculties, which change is called by Christ himself by the name of being born again, a change effected solely by the Spirit of God; and therefore those who are possessed of it are said to be born of the Spirit. All then who boast of man's natural love of goodness and virtue, and cherish ideas of the strength of his powers to save himself, militate wholly against those doctrines which he found so useful to his soul. Indeed it so happens in experience, that the success of such pretended reformers resembles that of noisy empirics in physic; the true lovers and genuine practitioners of genuine virtue being found only among those, whose very doctrine lays a solid foundation for humbling man, and glorifying his Maker.

"Thus far then the presumption lies in favour of these two doctrines of Justification and Regeneration, that a change so confessedly great, or a conversion so extraordinary (will the polite. reader allow me the word? I really know no other so proper) was effected, supported, and carried on entirely by the influence of these doctrines.

"We may now proceed a step farther, and observe that his change cannot possibly be accounted for in any other way than by a divine influence. The doctrines which he espoused, and by the power of which alone it was effected, are certainly of so peculiar a nature, as to evi-dence their divine origin. That a sinner should be justified be-fore his Maker, purely by the

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