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"Being thus encouraged, (says he) I ventured out at noon, when the fields were quite full; and could scarce help smiling, to see thousands, when a merry-andrew was trumpeting to them, upon observing me mount a stand on the other side of the field, deserting him, till not so much as one was left behind, but all flocked to hear the gospel. But this, together with a complaint that they had taken near twenty or thirty pounds less that day than usual, so enraged the owners of the booths, that when I came to preach a third time in the evening, in the midst of the sermon, a merry-andrew got up upon a man's shoulders, and advancing near the pulpit, attempted to slash me with a long heavy whip several times. Soon afterwards they got a recruiting serjeant, with his drum, &c. to pass through the congregation. But I desired the people to make way for the king's officer, which was quietly done. Finding these efforts to fail, a large body, quite on the opposite side, assembled together, and having got a great pole for their standard, advanced with sound of drum, in a very threatening manner, till they came near the skirts of the congregation. Uncommon courage was given both to preacher and hearers. I prayed for support and deliverance, and was heard. For just as they approached us with looks full of resentment, I know not by what accident, they quarrelled among themselves, threw down their staff, and went their way, leaving, however, many of their company behind, who, before we had done, I trust were brought over to join the besieged party. I think I continued in praying, preaching, and singing, (for the noise was too great at times to preach) about three hours. We then retired to the tabernacle, where thousands flocked. We were determined to pray down the booths; but, blessed be God, more substantial work was done. At a moderate computation, I received (I believe) a thousand notes from persons under conviction; and soon after, upwards of three hundred were received into the society in one day. Some I married, that had lived together without marriage. One man had exchanged his wife for another and given fourteen shillings in exchange. Numbers, that seemed as it were to have been bred up for Tyburn, were at that time plucked as firebrands out of the burning."

Soon after these transactions, he embarked a second time for Scotland, and arrived at Leith, on the 3d of June, 1742. When he was at Edinburgh, he received accounts that the Spaniards had landed in Georgia. Upon this occasion he wrote to Mr. Habersham; "I am glad my dear family is removed to Mr. Bryan's, and rejoice that our glorious God had raised him and his brother

up, to be such friends in time of need. My thoughts have been variously exercised, but my heart kept stedfast and joyful in the Lord of all lords, whose mercy endureth for ever. I long to be with you, and methinks could willingly be found at the head of you kneeling and praying, though a Spaniard's sword should be put to my throat. But alas, I know not how I should behave, if put to the trial: only we have a promise, that as our day is, so our strength shall be. The thoughts of divine love carry me above every thing. My dear friend, the Spaniards cannot rob us of this; nor can men or devils. I humbly hope that I shall shortly hear of the spiritual and temporal welfare of you all."

During the period from this time till 1769, Mr. Whitefield often preached in every city in England and Scotland, and in most of the villages. He visited Ireland and several places on the continent of Europe, and some parts of the West-Indies. He also made five more visits to America, and more than once travelled through all the states. He every where preached to crowded assemblies with his usual success and opposition.

At length, on the beginning of September, 1769, Mr Whitefield embarked for the seventh and last time for America. Here he spent his last efforts for the promulgation of the gospel, and at length departed this life, in a fit of the asthma, at Newbury-Port, in New-England, on the 30th of September, 1770, where his remains were deposited. He was not full fifty-six at the time of his death; but thirty-four years however of that time he had spent in the ministry.

SERIES OF LIVES.

[Continued from page 355]

LIFE OF CLEMENS ROMANUS.

THERE is a general analogy between the operations of nature and of grace, for, as in the former, one species is shaded off into another, so that the gradation is sometimes hardly perceptible, so, in the latter, the first miraculous effusion of the spirit was closed by no abrupt and violent termination, but passed on by a gentle transition to its more ordinary though still powerful work. The apostles are to be regarded as a singular order in the church: in point of inspiration and of miraculous powers it is not, perhaps, too much to say, that they had no successors; for neither was the conduct of those who followed them, regulated by directions from heaven equally specific, and their preaching ordinarily at

tended with the same attestations from above, nor were their writs ings dictated by the same unerring spirit of wisdom and truth; yet there appears to have been, at least there was once understood to have been, something like a connecting link between these two situations of the Church.

Of Clemens, afterwards Bishop of Rome, who received that singular attestation that his name was written in the Book of Life, we learn from the same authority that he was the companion and fellow-labourer of St. Paul; and his first Epistle to the Corinthians, probably the only genuine composition of his hand which hath come to modern time, was anciently admitted into the canon of scripture. The parentage and country of this holy man are alike unknown: the language, however, and style of his epistle lead us to conclude that he was a native Greek. The labours which he underwent, and the countries which he traversed, can only be conjectured from his connexion with the indefatigable apostle of the Gentiles, and of his later history nothing more has been recorded, than that he was ordained bishop of Rome, according to some accounts immediately after St. Peter, but more probably with the intervention of Anacletus. The precise time and manner of his death are equally uncertain with his birth, for what is called the martyrdom of Clemens, in which these and many other circumstances concerning him have been very confidently told, is a modern fabrication of some idle and superstitious Greek, and no authentic or even ancient acts of his martyrdom exist.

In such a penury of facts with respect to this apostolical man, it is happy, however, for the Church of Christ, that, what is of much more importance, his temper, opinions, and principles, may now be learned from himself: for his first Epistle to the Church of Corinth, which had been cited by Irenæus, Clemens of Alexandria, and Origen, and of the genuineness of which no doubts were entertained by antiquity, after being inquired for in vain from the revival of letters, was retrieved by the learned Patrick Young, from a manuscript supposed to be as old as the first Council of Nice, and printed at Oxford A. D. 1633.

The antiquity and authority of this work, the importance of the doctrines it contains, and their peculiar suitableness to the divided state of the church in the present day, all entitle it to an abstract, to which the remainder of this article will therefore be devoted. 1

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The Church of God which is at Rome, to the Church which is at Corinth, called and sanctified by the will of God through

Jesus Christ, grace and peace be multiplied.

OUR own distresses, beloved brethern, have prevented us for a season from attending to your inquiries, and to an horrible and wicked schism which hath taken place among you, unworthy of the elect of God. This flame appears to have been kindled by a few rash and presumptuous men, who have brought a great scandal upon your church, and caused the venerable name, to which you had attained among christians, to be much traduced. For whoever conversed with you or had any intercourse among you, without admiring your faith, which was productive of every other grace, your simplicity, piety, hospitality, knowledge, and impartial uprightness? Walking in the commandments of God, subject and submissive to your "rulers," and giving due honour to the Presbyters, ye taught the young moderation and reverence to their superiors; ye required of women to walk in all holy and chaste conversation, to love their husbands in all dutiful subjections, to attend to their domestic concerns in all gravity, and to be modest in their whole conversation; for then ye were all humble-minded, more disposed to obey than govern, to give than to receive, contented with the gifts of God,† diligently hearkening to his word, and having his sufferings continually before your eyes: thus a blessed peace was multiplied upon you, an insatiable desire of well-doing was excited, and an abundant measure of the Holy Ghost was poured out upon you all. Day and night was your solicitude awake for the whole brotherhood, that through mercy and a good conscience the whole number of the elect might be saved. Seditions and schisms were an abomination in your eyes. Ye mourned over the failings of your brethren, regarded their infirmities as your own, repented not of any good work, did every thing in the fear of God, and manifested his commandments written upon the tables of your hearts.

But worldly prosperity and honour increased. The scripture was fulfilled, which saith, " Jeshurun waxed fat and kicked:" and hence came envyings, discord, tumults, and persecution. The mean rose up against the honourable, the foolish against the wise, the young against the aged: now, therefore, righteousness

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The literal meaning and construction of the sentence is here preserved, because a most important conclusion may be derived from the expression anuala 68 018.

and peace are fled, the fear of God is cast away, faith is become blind; no one walketh any longer in the fear of God, or labours to conform himself to the example of Christ, but every one gives himself up to his own corruptions and lusts, to pride and envy, by which sin entered into the world. Remember what is written of Cain. Ye perceive, brethren, that wrath and envy produced the slaughter of a brother; by the same evil passions was Joseph brought nigh unto death, and reduced to slavery; by the same was Moses driven from the face of Pharaoh, and from the presence of his own people; by the same were Dathan and Abiram cast down quick into hell, because they rebelled against Moses the servant of God.

But not to insist on ancient examples: it was by strife and envy* that the blessed apostles were persecuted unto death; that Peter, after many trials, having received the crown of martyrdom, departed unto glory; that Paul, at length, received the reward of his patience after having been seven times in chains, been beaten and stoned, after having taught the world righteousness from the cast to the extremity of the west.

To these are to be added a great multitude of the elect, who having lived the life of faith, and after having endured many in sults, and undergone many torments through envy, have been brought to exhibit a glorious example in their deaths.

These things, brethren, we write not only for your admoni tion but our own, knowing that we ourselves are now running the same race, and engaged in the same conflict. Let us, there. fore, leave these vain and hurtful contests, and return to the rule of our high and holy calling; let us regard what is good and acceptable in the sight of him who made us; let us fix our eyes upon the blood of Christ, and endeavour to discern how precious, in the sight of God, is that blood, which having been shed for our salvation hath purchased the grace of repentance for the whole world.t

Let us look back upon former ages even to the beginning, and learn by many examples, that the Lord never denied a place for repentance to those who desired to be converted, and to re

Does not the general tenor of the argument seem to imply a fact which has been recorded by no historian, that the sufferings and deaths of the two apostles were, in part at least, occasioned by divisions in the church, and that probably they were betrayed by false brethren of the adverse party?

+ This is literally rendered, as it conveys a very great truth, that repentance itself is only rendered available through the blood of Christ.

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