These were the words spoken by the Redeemer of man, when he was told that the bloody-minded Herod had slaughtered some Galileans, and mingled their blood with his sacrifices, spoken as a proof, that when the judgments of the Almighty are upon the earth, they are for a terror to those who are left remaining to bring them to repentance. I tell ye, nay saith this our blessed Lord; these Galileans were not sinners above all the Galileans and except 'ye repent ye shall all likewise perish. Would to God this, doctrine. might have its due effect here, in this our rebellious island; rebellious against the God of Gods: that we would return unto the Lord who is mighty to save, and to our God who will abundantly pity: that cur friests may be appointed to lift up their hands, (holy I would have them to be) betwixt the porch and the altar, and taught, in the sincerity of their souls to say, SPARE THY PEOPLE, O LORD! This is a doctrine we are all ready to agree to whilst the danger is present, but when we apprehend it to be removed afar off, we suddenly grow forgetful; sud. denly there aiseth among us a spirit, busying itself in seeking to assign for the operations of the Almighty, what they, clouded in ignorance, skreen under the appellation of natural causes; though when they have done this, what a wretched felicity have they found out for us? Wretched indeed, when we come to think of thousands and ten thousands passing quick into the bowels of the earth, even whilst its caverns are belching out flaming streams of burning sulphur! wretched felicity, I say, arises from the contemplation of such horrors as these surrounding us, when we exclude the power of a Providence from being able to interpose, or to afford the least assistance, able to snatch us from this immediate destruction, and to seat us in his eternal mansions of bliss! Alas! Alas! these people of Buncombe; let us bewail them my countrymen for some few moments--But, shall we because of this their punishment, condemn them as sinners above all the rest of the people upon earth? God forbid ! We may indeed, for the sake of those who are to come after, wish, that their King would abolish what The most of all prides himself in, his auto de fe; and that he would leave the hearts, the consciences of all his subjects, to be searched and tried by him alone who knows the true beat of them; that he would remove laziness from the priesthood, and cause them to labour to convince, instead of cruelly to condemn. Those compulsive principles have their foundation in agregious mistakes, and proceed from our not knowing what manner of spirit we are of; a spirit, not one that delighteth in peace, but in blood: neither is there the least example to encourage this spirit, to be met with in him who was the Father's love, and whose whole time was employed in going about doing good; and who might, if he had so pleased, have commanded fire from Heaven to destroy his enemies. Neither is there on instance of what will amount to any thing like this compelling of consciences, to be met with in all the sufferings of his apostles; and in fact, all those texts brought to support and to maintain practices of this nature, are perversions of scripture,& have their origin in lies. We likewise wish, that not only this Prince, but all others of the Roman Catholic persuasion, would leave those who cannot see divinity in a piece of stone, or in ever so exquisitely painted canvas, to direct their contemplations, their prayers and their praises elsewhere. Those who cannot be sensible that the bread is actually transubstantiated into the body and blood of the blessed Jesus, at the consecration of the host, why should they not be permitted to be content with believing, that the elements which they receive in obedience to the divine command, Do 1 HIS IN REMEMBRANCE OF ME,have the same effect upon the soul, as if the body had indeed and in truth, participat, ed of the real body and blood of Christ? Those who cannot present their petitions to saints, let them be permitted to present them to GoD, who can and does ear us: we have his eternally begotten Sox's authority for it. Whatsoever ye shall ask the FATHER in my name he will give it you, saith he. And again, Where tapo or three are gath ered together in my name, I am present with them. But neither in this nor in any other of his sayings, is there a word relative to the presence of the blessed virgin,&c. Let us petition to the Almighty, whose ears are at all times open to our prayers, when possibly, these his deputies may be busied another way, may be upon a journey, or, peradventure may be sleeping. But whilst we stand gazing st these people of Buncombe, let us not forget to look at ourselves ; whilst we meditate upon the great calamity which has befallen them, let us likewise think how soon their fate may be our own-Let us con sider what large strides irreligion. has taken amongst us; what scoffers we have, at all things sacred, and contemners of every divine precept. Let us find out, if we are. able, how many various branches this grand principle of perhaps every evil, hath launched into Sabbath breaking, monstrously prophaning the name of the most high GOD, debaucheries of all kinds, op. pressing the necessitous, defrauding one another in every shape. it is possible to invent. By considering these things. rightly, we shall not be inclined to join in sentiments with those, who when the judgments of Gop (as I have already intimated) hath been amongst them, and is past, when the amaze that had seized them is over, try to fiing their consciences into a state of stupidity, and labour hard to persuade themselves, the like will never happen more. But avoiding these, let us give a strict attention to him who has told us; In the latter days, nations shall rise ~against nations, and kingdoms against kingdoms: and there shall be famines, and pestilence, and earthquakes in divers places. ALL THESE saith he, ARE THE BEGINNINGS OF SORROWS, Again, he telleth us; The porers of the Heavens shall be shaken ; and that, all the tribes of the earth shall mourn, i. e. of such whose minds are fixed entirely upon earthly things: And they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of Heaven with power and great glory. Strange satisfaction that must be, which results from the sayings of those who rack their brain, to come at what they account a reasonable discovery; of how the winds, and the vapours, and the central heat operate in the bowels of the earth. Strange satisfaction, I say, in these pretended discoveries, unless the discoverers can give us a certain assurance, which way those internal powers have passed, and how long it will be before they direct their course towards these islands, and make the fate of the Buncombe our own. How far more happy in mind, in soul is he, who solves 'all these wonders into the will of him who framed this mighty globe, and whose sole reliance is upon his Providence? Those who have their minds thus becalmed, are seldom much disturbed at the sight of contending elements! they can find nothing unaccountable, in being sensible that one quarter of the earth bath trembied like a leaf, that the waters thereof hate bubbled and boiled like a pot, by the power of him who put them together; because Such are thoroughly persuaded, the self same power can shake, and shiver, and that he one day will, as instantaneously, dissolve the whole ! It is known very well, that some of our great wits, those who fancy they are perfectly acquainted with these operations of nature, our bloods, &c. will laugh at these doc- the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man açcording to their works. Men, whose minds are rightly prepared by these doctrines, who leading conscientious and religious lives, become easy and content, in, The cloud capt towers, the gorgeous palaces,whatsoever situation the Almighty Yea, all, which it inherit shall dissolve: SHAKESPEAR. Hear also, what one inspired by the spirit of the Most High hath said upon this subject: The Heav1 ens and the earth, are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. Again, The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night in which the Heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shail melt with fervent heat, the earth also, and the works that are therein. shall be burnt up.. : hath been pleased to place them, or who having gone astray,become heartily repentant, give very little heed to whether the earth devours, or the sea swallows us up: whether we go quick into the grave, or pass thereto by a lingering illness. Whether dust is covered with immediate dust, or we are entombed with the greatest magnificence, encompassed with what this world. calls trophies of honor, it is indifferent to them and this they know that whether we have lain in the grave for a day, for a year, for an age, or for a thousand ages, it will make no material difference: seeing, that the next time we open our eyes (as open them once more we must) it will be to behold the shock, the wreck, the dissolution. of the whole that encompasseth us. of all material beings it will be to receive a life which storms, & wrecks,and tempests cannot touch, nor nothing give us pain, unless God's wrath: which if then fixed will so abide for ever. And another favored by the omnipotent, saw in a vision a resem. blance of that most great and terrible day. His words as follows: And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away : and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small aad great, stand before God, and the books were opened--And the sea gave up the dead which were in But O! let all thy piy fall on me : it: and death and hell delivered upon me thy servant, on that dreadful day, Forbid it Heaven forbid it Othou Being If men applied their wit as advisedly to judge between truth and since,continued he,as I was preaching, I went to observe,that the devil was the father of liars, but mistook, and said lawyers and the mistake was so small, I let it go. LADY'S MISCELLANY NEW-YORK, March 14, 1812. To note the passing tidings of the times. Casualties.-On Tuesday morning. Mr. Barent Wyckoff, of King's county, falsehood, godliness and worldli-clerk in the store of Mr. Simmons, Fly. ness, as every man in his trade doth to judge between profit and loss: they would forthwith by principles, bred within themselves, and by conclusions following upon the same, discern the true religion from the false and the way which God hath ordained to welfare, from the deceitful ways and cross and crooked inventions of men. As a minister and a lawyer were riding together, says the minister to the lawyer,sir,do you ever make any mistakes in pleading? I do, said the lawyer. And what do you de with mistakes said the minister? Why,sir, if large ones, I mend them if small ones I let them go, said the lawyer. And pray, sir, continued he,do you ever make any mistakes in preaching? Yes, sir, said the minister, I do. And what do you do with mistakes? said the lawyer. Why, sir, I dispense with them much in the same way you just observed: I rectify large ones and neglect small ones. Not long market, fell in a fit and was found on his face suffocated. The verdict of the coroner's inquest was that he died a natural death. On Wednesday morning, the body of a Femele,apparently aged about 25 years, was found floating in the East River at the foot of Rosevelt-street, meanly clad, without any marks of violence, and sup. posed to be drowned by accident. the 31st December, 1811. * We have received accounts that the English ship St. George, 98 guns com. manded by Admiral Reynolds, and the Defence of 74, Capt. David Atkins, were driven ashore on the morning of the 24th inst. near cape Ryssentien, in the Lordship of Rinkiobing. The crew of the former is said to have consisted of 850 men, and of the latter, of 550 men, not including the officers. Half an hour after the Defence touched the ground, the whole went to pieces, & all the crew |