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"When I spoke to him," this friend writes," of leaving Boston next spring, so as to avoid the unpleasant weather at that season of the year, he said, with perfect composure, that long before that time he should be in his grave; that he had always been subject to inward fever, and that he had already lived as long as he expected; that when he was stout and hearty, he was impressed with the persuasion, that he had not long to live; that he had only one petition to offer on this subject Father, thy will be done.' He then conversed in an admirable manner on the good providence of God, which he was persuaded would dispose of his wife and his little child in the best possible manner; and particularly said, that even on their account he had no solicitude about life; that if such was the will of God, that he should now be taken away, his death would be good for them as well as for himself."

Our friend made no boast of his submission; these sentiments were uttered in all the ingenuousness and confidence of friend

ship. They show a temper most truly evangelical, the exercise of which, in life and death, is blessed and magnanimous. It is the same sublime spirit which burst from the soul of the apostle, in that rapturous exclamation-0 Death! where is thy sting! O grave! where is thy victory!

Mr. Samuel Cary was the son of the Rev. Thomas Cary, of Newburyport. He took his degree at Harvard University, in 1804; was ordained at the Chapel in Boston, 1st Jan. 1809, and died 22d Oct. 1815, aged 30, at Royston, England, where he had gone for the recovery of his health.-His publications are, a

Dis. before the Merrimack Hu

mane Society, 1806.

Dis. at his own Ordination,
1 Jan. 1809.
Dis. National Fast, 9 Sept:
1813.

Dis. at the Thursday Lecture,
1814.

Dis. on the death of Mad. S. Bulfinch, Feb. 1815. Review of "The Grounds of Christianity Examined," 1813.

FIRMNESS AND HUMANITY IN A CATHOLICK BISHOP.

IN the time of the general massacre of the Protestants in France, the Lieutenant Governour of Normandy intimated to the Bishop of Lisieux, the order which he had received to massacre all the Protestants in that

diocese. The good prelate replied-" You shall not execute the orders, or you shall begin with me; for I will never consent to it. I am pastor of the church of Lisieux, and those whom you would worry are my

flock. It is true, they are strayed; but I am not without hopes of bringing them back, in due time, into Christ's fold. I do not find in the Gospel, that a pastor ought to suffer others to spill the blood of his sheep; but, on the contrary, he is to shed his own, and even lay down his life for them. Go back, then, with your orders; they shall never be executed while God shall please to preserve my life, which I received from him for no other end but to be employed for the spiritual and temporal good of my flock."

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destroy men's lives, but to save them." How much more is this to be admired, than that wanton, ferocious, and desolating heroism, which has for ages been the theme of adulation among Christians! We may suppose that this Catholick Bishop was under a mistake, in thinking that his Protestant "sheep had gone astray;" but we cannot deny, that he displayed the temper of "the good Shepherd." How harmless were all his errours, compared with the one which he so heroically resisted! or indeed any one, which would have allowed him to embrue his hands in the blood of his brethren? Let all the ministers of religion, whe ther Papists or Protestants, unitedly display the temper and intrepidity of the Bishop of Lisi eux, and a new aspect will be given to the character of Christianity, and a more impregnable breast-work will be formed for the saving of men's lives, than the world has ever yet beheld-far surpassing the walls and towers of Nineveh, Babylon, or Jerusalem. If the Christian heroism of a single prelate could appal the heart and change the purpose of a powerful, misguided, and perAbridged from the Philanthropist. secuting monarch, who had slain

The Governour was affected with the heroick constancy of the Bishop, and requested of him a writ of refusal,, for his excuse to the king. The Bishop gave him one immediately, and said, he did not doubt that the king would approve his refusal; but, whatever might happen, he would be answerable for any ill consequence. The divine blessing attended the zeal of the Bishop. On the Governour's reporting the manner in which the Bishop opposed the orders, the king was much affected, and revoked them, as they respected the diocese of Lisieux.

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his thousands and his tens of thousands,-what would be the effect of the combined influence of all the clergy in Christendom, to put an end to sanguinary customs, and to promote peace on earth, and good will among men!

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THE UNREASONABLENESS OF RELYING ON A DEATH-BED REPENTANCE.

THE celebrated Dr. Jeremy Taylor, who was one of the most pious and eminent writers of his time, has two Sermons on the Invalidity of a late, or Deathbed Repentance," which exhibit the subject in a light that is truly awful and alarming. A few short extracts, we hope, will be useful to some of our readers.

He thus paints the conduct of those who rely on a death-bed repentance:-" Sacrificing their childhood to vanity; their youth to lust and to intemperance; their manhood to vanity, ambition and rage, pride and revenge, secular desires, and unholy actions; and yet still farther, giving their old age to covetousness, the world, and to the devil: and, after all this, what remains for God and religion? Oh, for this they will do well enough! Upon their death-bed they will think a few godly thoughts; they will send for a priest to minister comfort to them; they will pray and ask God forgiveness; and leave their goods behind them, disposing them to their friends and relatives; and some dole, and issues of their alms-basket, to the poor. And if, after all this, they die quietly, and like a lamb, and be canonized by a bribed flatterer in a funeral sermon, they make no doubt but they are the children of the kingdom; and perceive not their folly, till, without hope, they roar, in their expectations of a certain but horrid eternity of pains.

"Certainly nothing hath made more ample harvests for the devil, than the deferring of repentance upon vain confidences; while we imagine that a few tears and scatterings of devotion, are enough to expiate the baseness of a fifty or three score years of impiety."

"The rewards of Heaven are so great and glorious, and Christ's burden so light and easy, that it is a shameless impudence to expect so great glories at a lower rate than a holy life."

"But will not the merits of Jesus Christ save such a man? For that we must be tried by the word of God, in which we have no contract at all made with a dying person, that hath lived, in name a Christian, in practice a heathen; and we shall dishonour the sufferings and redemption of our blessed Saviour, if we make them an umbrella, to shelter our impious and ungodly living.Observe but two places of Scripture- Our Saviour Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us.'-What to do? that we might live as we list, and hope to be saved by his merits?-No; but that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.'

Christ bare our sins in his own body on the tree.'-To what end? That we, being dead unto sin, should live unto righteousness.' Since, therefore, our living a holy life was the end of Christ's dying for us, he that

trusts on it to evil purposes, and to excuse his vicious life, does, as much as lies in him, make void the very design of Christ's passion, and dishonours the blood of the everlasting covenant."

What ideas could be suggested to the mind of a delaying sinner,

more adapted to rouse him from his guilty slumbers, than such views of " the invalidity of a late, or death-bed repentance ?" And is there not reason to fear, that millions have been ruined, by a delusive reliance on an opposite doctrine?

66 THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY.

"MR. LORING D. DEWEY has published a discourse, delivered before a private society of the students of the Theological Seminary, in New-York, of which he was a member. It is the principal object of this discourse to show, that being justified, in the language of the New-Testament, means being pardoned. This heinous proceeding of the young gentleman, was the occasion of the following letter.

"New-York, 12th March, 1816.

"To Mr. Loring D. Dewey.

"SIR-It is matter of grief to us, that any of our pupils, whom we have been endeavouring to lead into the knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus, should turn away from the holy commandment delivered unto him. This, misguided youth, is your own case. The doctrines which you have avowed in your discourse submitted to us, and in your conversation with us relative thereto, are so deeply erroneous, so radically subversive of the whole Gospel scheme, and so ruinous to the souls of men,

that they cannot be tolerated in the Seminary under our care. It shall not here be so much as questioned, no, not for an hour, whether attacks upon the essential parts of our Redeemer's work, are to be permitted in any shape, or upon any pretence whatever.

"We are, therefore, under the afflicting necessity of informing you, that your connexion with our Seminary ceases from this day. You will consider the present decision as peremptory, and not to be altered, unless it shall please God to give you a sounder mind, and enable you to recover yourself out of the snare of the devil. That such may be your happiness, is our heart's desire and prayer for you.

J. M. MASON, Principal Th. Sem.
A. R. C. New York.
J. M. MATTHEWS, Ass't Professor
Th. Sem. A. R. C. New York."

The above article has been taken from the North American Review. As we have not been able to obtain a copy of the "discourse" which has been so severely censured, no opinion will now be given of its correct

ness, or incorrectness. It may, however, be of some use, to call the attention of our readers to the contrast between the spirit and conduct of the "Principal of the Theological Seminary, A. R. C. New-York," and the Principal of a Theological Seminary which once existed in Palestine. From the letter of exclusion, it is pretty evident that Mr. Dewey was censured for some opinion which he expressed on what was deemed, by his instructors, "essential parts of the Redeemer's work."

to Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders, and chief priests, and scribes; and be killed, and be raised again the third day. Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee."

Was not Peter as rash, as erroneous, as self-confident, at that time, as L. D. Dewey was in writing his discourse? Did Dewey make" attacks upon essential parts of the Redeemer's work," in a more daring or direct form than Peter had done? This, I suspect, will not be pretended.

It may be observed, that "the Redeemer" himself was once the Principal of a Theological Semi- In what manner, then, did nary, and had under his tuition Jesus conduct towards his erring twelve pupils, eleven of whom he disciples? Did he domineer over ordained as ministers of the Gos- them, revile them, and drive pel. But, for a long time, these them from the Seminary?—Not pupils were so bewildered by so. He indeed reproved them prejudice, that they retained the for their ambition, and pointed most erroneous views of the ob- out to them the way to become ject of their Master's mission, truly great. Peter was, with and some of the "essential parts some severity, reproved for his of the Redeemer's work." They impertinent rashness; but we even imagined that he had come hear nothing of a letter of maleto reign as a temporal monarch, diction, denunciation, or excluand that they were destined to sion. Having reproved, when be ministers of state. With reproof was needed, Jesus still these views, they disputed on treated his disciples with affecthe question, which of them tion and tenderness; by degrees, should be the greatest, or prime he corrected their errours, remominister. The two sons of Zebe- ved their prejudices, opened undee even petitioned their Lord, to them the Scriptures, prepared that one of them might "sit on them for the work of the minishis right hand, and the other try, and sent them forth as he'on his left," in his kingdom; raids of salvation. which, in truth, was no less than to solicit the two highest offices of state next to the king. Not long before his crucifixion, “Jesus began to show to his disciples, how that he must go up

Now, it may be asked, which is the most to be admired, the censoriousness and precipitancy of Dr. Mason, or the candour and long-suffering of the Messiah?

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