conductors had forgot! At length one said, Why they pretend to be better than other people; and besides they pray from morning to night." Mr. S. asked, "but have they done nothing besides? "Yes, Sir," said an old man ; "an't please your worship, they have convarted my wife. Till she went among them, she had such a tongue, and now she is as quiet as a lamb !" Carry them back, carry them back,” replied the justice," and let them convert all the scolds in the town."

SCRIPTURE MISAPPLIED, IRREVERENTLY USED, &c.

TO pervert, misapply, or irreverently use the sacred scripture, whether in the pulpit or in conversation, is an evil highly reprehensible. It leads to an improper familiarity with the scripture, furnishes an argument for the infidel, and is a proof either of our ignorance, error, levity, or malignity. The sacred volume ought always to be treated with the greatest reverence; and whether we preach from it, or converse about it, it ought to be with the greatest seriousness and care.

As it respects conversation, take the following example. "A person wishing to inform another he is alluded to, announces, in scripture language, "Thou art the man;" or, in excusing the attendance of a man lately married, that, "He has married a wife, and therefore cannot come." Another tells us, "I have found my sheep which was lost ;" and I have heard a per

na piece of business taking a more faturn than expected, rebuke another jothe words of our Lord, "O thou of n, wherefore didst thou doubt?" which ved by a laugh! I have also heard, and single instance, persons fond of smoking invite others to have with them, " a ering."

in the island of Jersey, who was a norunkard, would often drink half a pint of lands at a time, and with these words outh: "Be not drunk with wine, wherecess, but be filled with the spirit." On casions, when drinking off a small glass, 1 profanely quote these words: "Take ye despise not one of these little ones." respects the misapplication of scripture lpit, we have too many instances. following passage is found in a sermon d by a protestant clergyman, at Bow before the Society for reformation of s. "As for those that dropt in by chance, e out of custom or curiosity, or to spy - liberty that we have in the Lord, or, it , they knew not why themselves, they e same freedom here, as in the devil's chastay as few or as many acts as they please; hen they have heard as much as serves urn, or something they do not like, or

t

may be change or dinner time, they are be gone; and, as they came unsent and ed for, so they may depart not desired; e only remark I shall make is, that they ut from us, but they were not of us; for if

they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us."

The typical parts have often been abused. thus, according to some, the snuffers signify sound arguments, faithful admonitions, and dreadful excommunications. The grate of network shews the rich usefulness of Jesus Christ for justification. The tree thrown into the waters, to sweeten them, is Jesus Christ; and we are told, that in countries where the waters are venomous, when the beasts come to drink, they all wait for the unicorn, that so he might first put in his horn, the virtue of which expels the venomous corruption which was in the waters before, and then they all drink of the same. O! so should the Lord's people wait in the waters of affliction upon Christ, their spiritual unicorn, who putteth down his long horn of grace to sweeten, &c. See Worden's Types, ch. 9. 23. 25.

Types should," says one, "be handled cautiously and soberly, and always under the immediate direction of the New Testament writers. A man is always safe when he follows these guides."

No book has been taken more liberties with than that of the Canticles.

A grave commentator thus allegorises. "Solomon's bed is the church: the sixty valiant men about it are the six working days of the week, and the ten commandments; the thread of scarlet is a confession of faith in the doctrine of the Trinity and the death of Christ. My beloved put in his hand by the hole; that is, Thomas put in his hand into the side of Christ." This devout rhapsody the holy man calls heavenly food; and

es his readers to live upon it with the ogitations and the teeth of admiration. Carpath epise in Cantic. interp. apud Patrum, tom. 1.

n who allows his fancy to play with scripy make any thing of it. The following delivered in a sermon at St. Paul's in before the gentlemen of Nottinghamthe day of their yearly feast, is curious. e town of Nottingham doth run parallel usalem. Was Jerusalem set upon prehills? and is not Nottingham also? And nountains stood round about Jerusalem, y not so about Nottingham ?

And

e were two famous ascents in Jerusait not so in Nottingham? I need not that the soul of man is a precious thing, loss thereof sad in any country; yet, s, in the agueish parts of Kent and Eshere I have seen, sometimes, a whole pak together, the souls that miscarry thence out to go from purgatory to hell; but nat perish out of Nottinghamshire go from to hell. When a soul miscarries out of ghamshire, methinks, in melancholy visee the infernals flocking about it, and "Art thou come from those pleasant ins to these Stygian lakes?'" &c. Was h a man's while to come, as the preacher s auditors he did, "twenty-four miles in weather," to preach such stuff as this:? : ertain preacher took for his text. Acts xx. zul went a-foot to Assos; and expatiated

humility of trudging a foot after the apos

:

tle's example. Unluckily for this declaimer, the word wegeve does not signify to go a-foot it means to go by land; and he might as well have preached on the infirmities of good men, and have proved that St. Paul was timorous of sailing.

It would be easy to transcribe more instances of this kind, but I suppose the reader is already tired with the above. I shall only stop to express my grief that men, whose business it is to inform others, should be so ignorant themselves; that they, who pretend to illuminate should darken. Such characters who substitute fancy for genius, and contemptible singularities for extraordinary powers, give but little evidence, in my opinion, of their being called to the sacred work of the ministry. And yet, alas! how many of these miserable preachers have we, with whom multitudes, as miserable as themselves, are carried away!

SERVANTS.

SOBRIETY, activity, fidelity, submission, patience, punctuality, sincerity, and obedience to their masters are required of servants: but it is religion which will make them shine. This will enable them, not merely to fill up, but to adorn their stations. This will sweeten all their toils, produce contentment in the place which Providence hath allotted them, and teach them to look forward to that happy period, when they shall be elevated to those honours which are immortal, and those glories