vigour and aptitude for business, together with equanimity under provocations, and a perfect conquest over his irascible passions. "The sparks of calumny," he would say, "will be presently extinct "of themselves, unless you blow them— ("Spreta exolescunt; si irascare, ignita videntur.) "and therefore, in return, he chose rather to com"mend the good qualities of his calumniators (if they had any) than to dwell upon the bad."Life, p. 53. 6. To our Saviour and his commands may be applied, with propriety, what Hamlet, in Shakspeare, says of the injunctions of his father's ghost Yea, from the table of my memory I'll wipe away all trivial fond records, All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past, 7. To one who knows much of religion, and practises little, may be applied what Milton says of Satan perched on the tree of life ......Nor on the virtue thought Of that life-giving plant, but only us'd For prospect, what, well us'd, had been the pledge Any, but God alone, to value right The good before him, but perverts best things P. L. iv. 196. 8. Lord Astley, before he charged, at the battle of Edgehill, made this short prayer-" O Lord, thou "knowest how busy I must be this day. If I forget "thee, do not thou forget me!" There were certainly, says Hume, much longer prayers said in the parliamentary army; but I doubt if there was so good an one. Vol. vii. p. 65. 9. The divine, who spends all his time in study, and contemplation on objects ever so sublime and glorious, while his people are left uninstructed, acts the same part the eagle would do, that should sit all day staring at the sun, while her young ones were starving in the nest. 10. Dr. Ogden's secret for rendering the commandments easy is-LOVE. The saying of Madam Chevreuse is true in the highest sense. "Without " love, you can never rely on the heart of a person at a minute's warning; you can never inspire " it with that fervour and vivacity so necessary in tr whatever you wish to obtain." 11. Apply to the BIBLE these two lines of Tibullus; Te spectem, suprema mihi cum venerit hora, Te teneam moriens, deficiente manu! and the following of Pythagoras; Ταυτα πονεί, ταυτ' εκμελετα, τούτων χρή εραν σε Ταυτα σε της θείης αρετης εις ίχνια θησει. 12. Aben Ezra, on Exod. xxxviii. 8. extols the generosity of those women who devoted to the construction of a holy vessel (the laver) those utensils of self-love (their brazen mirrors) for which the persons of their sex have so great an inclination, and who showed, by such a sacrifice, that they preferred the service of God to the pleasures and vanities of the world.—Saurin, Diss. 466. Thomas Aquinas's Prayer before Study. Ineffably wise and good Creator, illustrious original, true fountain of light and wisdom, vouchsafe to infuse into my understanding some ray of thy brightness, thereby removing that two-fold darkness, under which I was born, of sin and ignorance. Thou, that makest the tongues of infants eloquent, instruct, I pray thee, my tongue likewise; and pour upon my lips the grace of thy benediction. Give me quickness to comprehend, and memory to retain; give me happiness in expounding, a facility in learning, and a copious eloquence in speaking. Prepare my entrance on the road of science, di rect me in my journey, and bring me safely to the end of it, even happiness and glory, in thine eternal kingdom, through Jesus Christ our Lord.-See the Latin. DISPUTATION. 1. DISPUTATION makes us ready and expert in using the knowledge we have, but sufficeth not for the acquisition of more. It is exercise, but not food.-Hist. of R. S. p. 18. 2. It is but too much a custom to give ill names to those who differ from us in opinion. Dr. Hammond mentions, as a humorous instance of it, that when a Dutchman's horse does not go as he would have him, he in great rage calls him an Arminian. DUELLING. FROM the Will of Colonel Thomas, dated London, September 3, 1783. "I am now called upon, and, by the rules of "what is called honour, forced into a personal "interview with Col. Gordon. God only can "know the event; and into his hands I commit my soul, conscious only of having done my duty. E "In the first place I commit my soul to Almighty "God, in hopes of his mercy and pardon for the "irreligious step I now (in compliance with the un"warrantable customs of this wicked world) put "myself under the necessity of taking." ECCLESIASTICUS. THE late Sir Edward Dering used to say, "He "did not pretend to understand much of the Bible, "but he was sure the gentleman who wrote that "book knew the world as well as any man that "ever lived in it." Sept. 29, 1782. There is more good sense, and are better precepts for the conduct of life, than in all the morality of the heathen. Dr. Campbell, Biog. Brit. iii. 215.-It is pity but a small and fair edition of the Greek were printed for the use of scholars and preachers. ECSTASIES. THERE is a set of Mahometan heretics, who excuse themselves from going the pilgrimage to Mecca, affirming, that the purity of their souls, their sublime contemplations, &c. shew them Mecca and Mahomet's tomb, without stirring out of their cells.They are called Ebrbuharites. |