and who was a man of great talents, daring and unbounded ambition, and a master of political economy; adopted a scheme for the destruction of the male population of the Hebrews, and their existence as a distinct people, which would have proved effectual but for the interposition of their God. "And the king of Egypt spake to the Hebrew midwives, of which the name of one was Shipvah, and the name of the other Puah; and he said, when ye do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and see them upon the stools; if it be a son, then ye shall kill him; but if it be a daughter then she shall live. But the midwives feared God, and did not as the king commanded them, but saved the men children alive. And the king of Egypt called for the midwives, and said unto them, why have ye done this thing, and saved the men children alive? And the midwives said unto Pharaoh, because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women; for they are lively, and are delivered ere the midwives - come in unto them. Therefore God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied, and waxed very mighty. And it came to pass, because the midwives feared God, that he made them houses. And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, every son that is born shall be cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive."

This doctrine of the old covenant pervades the new; is openly avowed by our Emanuel; was exemplified in himself and the army of confessors who bled and triumphed under his royal banners. "Think not that I come to send peace on the earth; I came not to send peace, but a sword; I am come to send fire on the earth, and what will if it be already kindled?"

Sacred history is full of the crafty and cruel schemes which wise and unwise, priestly and royal tyrants, have put in execution for effecting the destruction of the church of Christ. More invention, time, and power, have been devoted to corrupt her doctrines, change her rites, debase her discipline, diminish the number of her members, rob them of their liberty, property, and lives, than have been devoted to any one subject of state policy that ever occupied the attention of ministers and rulers. But all have been in vain. "I say unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."

Though persecution is no longer the engine of the state, but slumbers in his den, formed of the ashes, and cemented with the blood of murdered millions; and therefore dare not touch the property, liberty, or the life of the poorest members of Christ; yet he continues to actuate the ungodly world, and rouse up the enmity of the carnal mind in particular acts of persecution against the church, both in her collective and individual capacity. Many of you who read these pages, have names given you by your enemies expressive of their views of your principles and characters, which are intended to hold you up to ridicule and contempt. If you and your beloved pastors hold the truth as it is in Jesus, and publicly avow your attachment to its discriminating doctrines, you will be called licentious anti

nomians, "having the form, but denying the power of godliness," at the very moment your spirit and conduct falsify your accusers. Thus will your characters be defamed, your motives misrepresented, your plans opposed, and their aid withdrawn in the very hour of your need; while all this will be done, if they should be professors, from pure love to your souls, and zeal for the glory of God, "Yea, the time cometh that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service." Among the number of these enemies, be not surprized if you meet many of the saints with their teachers; nay, some of the members, and even the elders of the church with which you stand connected, or over which God may have placed you as his mouth and wisdom. "For it was not an enemy that reproached me; then could I have borne it; neither was it he that hated me that did magnify himself against me; then I would have hid myself from him. But it was thou, a man, mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance. We took sweet counsel together, and walked to the house of God in company.' "And a man's foes shall be they of his own household. These things have I spoken unto you that ye should not be offended."

(For the Spiritual Magazine.)

AN EXPOSITION OF VERSE 7 to 11, OF CHAPTER VII, OF ST. MATTHEW'S GOSPEL, BY WILLIAM TYNDALE; Extracted from the New Edition of the Works of the English and Scottish Reformers, Edited by the Rev. T. RUSSEL, A.M. now in course of

publication.

"Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For all that ask, receive; and he that seeketh, findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. For what man is it among you, if his son ask him bread, that would prefer him a stone? Or if he asked him fish, would he offer him a serpent? If ye then which are evil know to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask them."

First, note of these words, that to pray is God's commandment, as it is to believe in God, to love God, or to love thy neighbour; and so are alms and fasting also. Neither is it possible to believe in God, or to love him, or to love thy neighbour, but that prayer will spring out there hence immediately. For to believe in God, is to be sure that all thou hast is of him, and all thou needest must come of him. Which if thou do, thou canst not but continually thank him for his benefits, which thou continually, without ceasing, receivest of his hand, and thereto ever cry for help; for thou art ever in need, and canst no whence else be holpen. And thy neighbour is in such necessity also; wherefore, if thou love him, it will compel thee to

pity him, and to cry to God for him continually, and to thank as well for him as thyself.

Secondarily. This heaping of so many words together, ask, seek, and knock, signify that the prayer must be continual; and so doth the parable of the widow that sued to the wicked judge; and the cause is, that we are ever in continual necessity (as I said) and all our life, but even a warfare and a perpetual battle. In which we prevail as long as we pray, and be overcome as soon as we cease praying; as Israel overcame the Amalekites. As long as Moses held up his hands in prayer, and as soon as he had let down his hands for weariness, the Amalekites prevailed and had the better. (Exod. xvi.) Christ warned his disciples at his last supper, to have peace in him; affirming that they should have none in the world. The false prophets shall ever impugn the faith in Christ's blood, and enforce to quench the true understanding of the law, and the right meaning and intent of all the works commanded by God; which fight is a fight above all fights. First, they shall be in such number, that Christ's true disciples shall be but a small flock in respect of them. They shall have works like Christ's; so that fasting, prayer, poverty, obedience, and chastity, shall be the names of their profession. For, as Paul saith to the Corinthians, the angels or messengers of Satan shall change themselves into angels or messengers of light and truth. They shall come in Christ's name, and that with signs and miracles, and have the upper hand also, even to deceive the very elect, if it were possible. Yea, and beyond all this, if thou get the victory of the false prophets, and pluck a multitude out of their hands, there shall immediately rise of the same, and set up a new false sect against thee. And against all these Amalekites, the only remedy is to lift up the hands of thy heart to God in continual prayer. Which hands, if thou for weariness once let fall, thou goest to the worst immediately. Then, beside the fight and conflict of the subtle sophistry, false miracles, disguised and hypocritish works of these false prophets, cometh the dogs and wolves of their disciples, with the servants of mammon, and the swine of thine own scholars; against which all thou hast no other shield or defence but prayer. Then the sins and lusts of thine own flesh, Satan, and a thousand temptations unto evil in the world, will either drive thee to the castle and refuge of prayer, or take thee prisoner undoubtedly.

Last of all, thy neighbour's necessity and thine own will compel thee to cry, Father, which art in heaven, give us our daily bread, though thou wert as rich as king Solomon. For Christ commandeth the rich as well as the poor to cry to God continually for their daily bread. And if they have no such need, then is Christ a deceiver and a mocker. What need I pray thee to give or lend me that is in mine own possession already? Is not the first commandment, that there is but one God, and that thou put thy whole trust in him? which, if it were written in thine heart, thou shouldest easily perceive; and that though thou hadst as many thousands as David left behind him,

1

and Solomon heaped more to them, that thou hadst no more than the poor beggar that goeth from door to door; yea, and that the beggar (if that commandment be written in his heart,) is sure that he is as rich as thou. For first, thou must knowledge that thou hast received that great treasure of the hand of God. Wherefore, when thou fetchest an halfpenny thereof, thou oughtest to give God thanks in thine heart for the gift thereof.

Thou must confess, also, that God only hath kept it and thee that same night, and ever before; or else be an idolater, and put thy trust in some other thing than God. And thou must confess, that God only must keep it and thee, the day and night following, and so continually after; and not thine own wit or power, or the wit or power of any other creature or creatures. For if God kept it not for thee, it would be thine own destruction, and they that help thee to keep it would cut thy throat for it. There is no king in christendom so well beloved, but he hath enow of his own evil subjects (if God kept them not down with fear) that would at one hour rise upon him and slay him, to make havoc of all he hath. Who is so well beloved throughout all England, but that there be enow in the same parish, or nigh about, that would, for his good, wish him to hell if they could, and would with their hands destroy him, if God kept him not, and did [not] cast fear on the other?

Now, then, if God must ever keep it for thee, and thou must daily receive it of his hand (as a poor man doth receive his alms of another man) thou art in no more surety of thy daily bread; no, though thou were a cardinal, than the poorest is. Wherefore, howsoever rich thou be, yet must thou ever cry to God for thy daily bread. So now it is a commandment to pray, and that continually; short, thick and oft, as the Psalms be, and all the prayers of the bible.

Finally: the third is, that we be commanded to pray with faith and trust, and that we believe in the Lord our God, and doubt not in his promises, unto which Christ induceth us with an apt similitude, saying, "if ye being evil can give good things unto your children, how much more shall God fulfil his promises of mercy unto his children, if they cry unto him?" He is better and more merciful than all men. Wherefore, seeing God commandeth thee to pray, and forasmuch as thou hast so great necessity so to do, and because he is merciful, and hath promised and is true, and cannot deny his own words; therefore pray, and when thou prayest, look not on thine unworthiness, but on his commandment, mercy, and goodness, and on his truth and faithfulness, and believe steadfastly in him. Moreover, whatsoever thou hast done, yet if thou repent and will amend, he promiseth that he will not think on thy sins. And though he defer thee, think it not long, nor faint not in thy faith, or be slack in thy prayer. For he will surely come and give thee more than thou desirest, though he defer for thy profit, or change thy request into a better thing.

(For the Spiritual Magazine.)

MEDITATION ON THE MERCY OF GOD.

O MY Soul! what has grace, unparalleled grace done for thee? Art thou not ravished with the sight of so blessed and transporting a change? O how sweetly are the wonders of divine and everlasting love manifested to thy soul in the display of rich and sovereign mercy! When sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death, how unbounded was that mercy that kept thee by its Almighty power! And when the love of thy dear Lord was made known to thee, in drawing thee from the depths of despair, and alluring thy soul, and enabling thee to rest thy weary spirit in his beloved bosom, O what meltings at the footstool of mercy didst thou feel; and how wast thou swallowed up with the love of thy adorable Jesus! And canst thou forget these seasons of rejoicing! Ah! Lord, I cannot reflect on the day of my espousals, but with some joy and triumph!-Here my soul would pause and wonder at thy grace which is from everlasting, in snatching such a rebellious wretch, lying in the ruins of the fall, from misery indescribable! Ponder, my soul, over the ancient love of thy covenant God, in viewing his dear church in their lapsed and fallen state! and then contemplate his astonishing thoughts of mercy and peace towards her! How sweetly is it manifested in all his acts of grace! My soul would glory in thine all-victorious love! it would pleasingly and delightfully recount the unnumbered blessings she enjoys through the eternal and unchangeable union that subsisted from all eternity with her beloved Head! Here would she trace all her springs of blessedness! O my soul, thou mayest well mourn and be ashamed that thine affections are so often on earthly things, when thou rememberest that thou art blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, and art designed to enjoy the presence of thy Lord in ineffable and inconceivable glory! worms of earth made one with the Lord of heaven and earth, by an act of distinguishing mercy and grace! Strangely, my soul, art thou arrayed indeed, to be an heir of God, and a joint-heir with Christ! Reflect then, thou art a son of God, even now in this corrupt and mortal state; and when thou shalt be unharnessed, then shalt thou awake up in the likeness of thy soul's delight, and be like him for ever and ever! And all this surprising wondrous love through his matchless, free, everlasting, and eternal mercy!

FRAGMENT.

The first spark of light, and the first motion of spiritual life in the heart of a sinner, must come from him who is the light and life of man. But Christ cannot dwell in the heart, unless there be union with him, and whosoever is thus passed from death unto life is not under condemnation.