The Bishop replied to this purpose: "I have not written and yet I cannot charge myself with a breach of promise; for I began to write; but when I came to treat of the new creature, which God formeth by his own Spirit, in every regenerate soul, I found so little of it wrought in myself, that I could speak of it only as parrots, or by rote, but without the knowledge of what I might have expressed; and therefore I durst not presume to proceed any further upon it."

Upon this, his friend stood amazed to hear such an humble confession from so grave, holy, and eminent a person. The Bishop then added; "I must tell you, we do not well understand what sanctification and the new creature are. It is no less than for a man to be brought to an entire resignation of his own will to the will of God; and to live in the offering up of his soul continually in the flames of love, as an whole burnt-offering to Christ; and O, how many who profess Christianity, are unacquainted, experimentally, with this work upon their souls!"

THE OCULAR TREATY.

A FRAGMENT.

Thoughts on Job xxxi. 1. I made a Covenant with

mine eyes.

It was a proof of thy wisdom, venerable sage, that thou didst so! O that I had done the same thirty years ago! I had then escaped many a snare, the recollection of VOL. III.

36

which covers me with shame. I still find the need of

a similar precaution; and most heartily recommend Job's ocular treaty to my dear young friends.

Our nature is totally sense is the port of evil. quisite workmanship, its mechanism beyond measure marvellous, its powers amazingly extensive!* O my God, that so distinguished a branch of thy creation should ever be perverted to purposes that debase my nature! It was formed to survey thy glorious works, and thence deduce the demonstration of thy infinite wisdom and goodness; but, ah, how soon was it prostituted to base and destructive uses. The first sin, that fatal act of rebellion, which ruined us all, found admission to the heart of Eve by this organ. The interdicted tree was beautiful to the eye; she was captivated with its pleasing hue, and rashly snatched the poisonous fruit. The universal tragedy, the deluge of the world, owed its origin to the same source: the sons of God beheld the daughters of men, were smitten with their exterior beauty, and lost sight of their idolatrous deformity.

corrupted by sin, and every The eye is an organ of ex

* "High in the head, bright and conspicuous as a star in the brow of evening, is placed the eye. In this elevated situation, like a centinel posted in his watch-tower, it commands the most enlarged prospect. Consisting only of simple fluids, inclosed in thin tunicles, it conveys to our apprehension all the graces of blooming nature, and all the glories of the visible heavens. How prodigiously wonderful, that an image of the hugest mountains, and a transcript of the most diversified landscapes should enter the small circlet of the pupil! How surprisingly artful, that the rays of light, like an inimitable pencil, should paint on the topic nerves; paint in an instant of time; paint in their truest colors and exactest lineaments, every species of external objects!"---Hervey's Dialogues xii.

Unhappy Achan too, perished in consequence of one unbridled glance of the eye.

The renowned Achilles, it is said, was invulnerable, save in his heel. Of how many is the eye the only vulnerable member.* Here David, the wise, the valiant, the pious, received that wound, in the agony of which he vented the mournful groans of the fifty-first psalm, and which, no doubt, made him go softly all his days. O my soul! how many strong and good men have fallen down wounded, the miserable victims of one unguarded sally of the eye!

How prudent, then to imitate the patriarch, and make a treaty with a power so able to hurt us. I find a noble heathen presenting us with an example. Scipio would not venture to behold his fair captive, but in the presence of her mournful husband, to whom he honorably restored her. Even that rash madman, Alexander, called the Great, would not see the beautiful daughters of Darius, lest the conqueror of the world should be tempted by their charms. Zaleucus, the Locrian legislator, ordain. ed that the crime of adultery should be punished by the loss of the offender's eyes. But a greater than these has enjoined us to pluck out our own eye if it offend; that is, to restrain and mortify its sinful lusts. Let a solemn treaty, then, be instantly ratified; let my eyes, let every member of my body, be "holiness unto the Lord." So shall I, one holy day, shut my eyes to all

* An excellent puritan writer, referring to the motto of Cesar. veni, vidi, vici, I saw, I came, I overcome; observes that, "many will have cause to say, we came, we saw, we were overcome." The drunkard, the covetous, the adulterer, will have occasion to adopt that motto.

the vanities of this ensnaring world, and open them to behold the unveiled beauties of my glorious Redeemer; to whom, be universal and everlasting praise!

ABSTINENTES OCULI.

SEEMING CONTRADICTIONS RECONCILED.

No. I.

Gen. vi. 6. It repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.

1 Sam. xv. 29. The Lord is not a man that he should

repent.

THE seeming contradiction in these passages arises from the same term being used in the one metaphorically, and in the other literally. It is literally true, that repentance is not predicable of the Divine nature, inasmuch as it implies mutability, and imperfection in knowledge and wisdom, neither of which can be applied to the infinitely blessed God. But in order to address himself impressively to us, he frequently personates a creature, or speaks to us after the manner of men. It may be doubted whether the displeasure of God against the wickedness of men could have been fully express ed in literal terms, or with any thing like the effect produced by metaphorical language. To evince this, I shall take the liberty to introduce a few brief expository notes, on the six preceding verses in Genesis: this chapter gives us an account of the corruption which pre

We may

ceded the flood, and which moved an infinitely good and merciful Being to bring it upon the earth. notice,

1. The occasion of this corruption; viz. the increase of population: it was when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, that they began to corrupt one another. Population is itself a good: but it often becomes the occasion of evil; because men, when numbers of them assemble together, excite and provoke one another to sin. Hence it is that sin commonly grows rankest in populous places. We are originally made to be helpers of one another; but sin perverts the course of things, and renders us tempters of one another. We draw and are drawn into innumerable evils. Oh, draw me not with the workers of iniquity?

2. The first step towards this corrupt state of things was, the mixing of the church and the world in marriages.* The sons of God saw the daughters of men,, that they were fair, and they took them wives of all whom they chose. The sons of God were those of the family of Seth,t of whom we read lately, that they called upon the name of the Lord. (iv. 16.) The daughters of

Query. Is it unscriptural for a professor of religion to marry a person who is not a professor?

This is a delicate and important question.

Without expressing an opinion upon the validity or invalidity of the arguments for and against mixed marriages, the Editor does not hesitate to say, it must be at least a pleasing circumstance, where conjugal affection unites, in this most endearing of all earthly connexions, two persons of real experimental piety.

A different sense is given from Cooper of this passage at page 239. The reader can judge which is the most accurate probably as well as the Editor.