Being come home, I found my wife and her maid in a very great confternation, apparent in their countenance. And when I enquired the caufe of it, my wife told me, That the night after I went out of town, the being in bed, her first sleep was broken by fomething, fhe knew not what, that drew her curtains with great noife and violence: that her maid who lay in another bed in the fame room, hearing the noise, arose in hafte, and ran to her miftrefs, to fee what it was, but faw nothing: that on fearching, the found the doors and windows as close as fhe had fhut them before fhe went to bed. My wife alfo told me, that the night following the made the maid lie in the fame bed with her: that as foon as they were in bed they felt fomething draw off the blankets: that then the maid getting out of bed endeavoured to go out of that room, but found the door bolted both within and without: that finding herself thus fhut up, called a youth that lay in another room; who rose to open the door: that lighting the candle, fhe found the pewter and brafs, in the kitchen, thrown about ; with which, that and the following nights, the evil Spirit made fuch a noife, as they used to make when they hived bees. Upon this relation, I was feized with fome amazement; yet I took a refolution not to be too credulous, nor too incredulous. Wherefore before I went to hed, I carefully fearched all the corners of the house, and fet bolts and barricadoes to all the doors and windows, flopping even the very cat-holes, leaving nothing that might occafion fufpicion of imposture: and after I had prayed with my family, I went to bed, while my wife and maid fat fpinning by the fire, with a lamp burning on the table. I had fcarcely got into bed, before I heard a great noise in the kitchen, as the rolling of a billet thrown with great trength. I heard alfo a knocking against a partition of wainscot in the fame kitchen; fometimes as with the point of the fingers; fometimes as with the nails; fometimes as with the fift, and then the blows did redouble. Many things were alfo also thrown against that wainscot, fuch as plates, trenchers and ladles, and mufic was made with a brafs colander, gingling with fome buckles that were at it, and with fome other inftruments of the kitchen. After I had given attentive ear to that noise, I rose from my bed, and taking my fword, I went into the room where all that stirred was kept, (the maid holding the candle before me,) and fearched narrowly whether I could find somebody hidden, but finding nothing, I returned to my bed. The noife beginning again, I rofe and fearched again, but all in vain. Then did I know that all this could not proceed but from a wicked Spirit. [To be continued.] ** K A SER MON [By Dr. CUDWORTH.] On 1 John ii. 3, 4. [Continued from page 321.] NOWLEDGE indeed is a thing far more excellent than riches, outward pleasures, worldly dignities, or any thing elfe in the world befides holiness and the conformity of our wills to the will of God: but yet our happiness consisteth not in it, but in a certain divine temper and conftitution of foul. But it is a piece of that corruption that runneth through human nature, that we prize Truth more than Goodness, and Knowledge more than Holiness. We think it a gallant thing to be fluttering up to heaven with our wings of Knowledge: whereas the highest mystery of a divine life here, and of perfect happiness hereafter, confifteth in nothing but mere Obedience to the divine Will. Happiness is nothing but that inward fweet delight that arifes from the harmonious agreement between our wills and God's will. There is nothin; in the whole world able to do us good of hurt, but Col and our own Will: neither riches nor poverty, por difgrace, nor honour, nor life, nor death, nor angels, nor devils: but willing and not willing as we ought. Should hell itself caft all its fiery darts against us, if our will be right, if it be informed by the divine will, they can do us no hurt; we have then (if I may so speak) an enchanted fhield, that is impenetrable and will bear off all. God will not hurt us, and hell cannot hurt us, if we will nothing but what God wills. Nay, then we are acted by God himself, and the whole Divinity floweth in upon us, and when we have cafhiered this felf-will of ours, which did but fhackle and confine our fouls, our wills fhall then become truly free, being widened and enlarged to the extent of God's own will. Hereby we know that we know Chrift indeed, not by our fpeculative Opinions concerning him, but by our keeping of his commandments, Thirdly, If hereby we are to judge whether we truly know Christ by our keeping his commandments; fo that he that faith he knoweth him and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar; then, this was not the defign of the gospel, to give the world an indulgence to fin, upon what pretence foever. But we are too prone to make fuch mifconftructions of it; as if God had intended nothing elfe in it, but to dandle our corrupt nature, and contrive a smooth and eafy way for us to come to happinefs, without the toilfome labour of fubduing our finful affections: as if the gofpel were nothing else but a declaration to the world, of God's engaging his affections from all eternity on fome particular perfons in fuch a manner, as that he would refolve to love them and dearly embrace them, though he never made them partakers of his image, in righteousness and true holiness: and though they should remain under the power of all their fins, yet they fhould fill continue his beloved ones, and he would notwithstanding at last bring them to heaven. And indeed nothing is more ordinary than for us to shape out fuch monftrous notions of God unto ourselves, by looking upon upon him through the coloured medium of our own corrupt hearts. And therefore because we can fondly love and hate, and fometimes hug the very vices of thofe to whom our af fections are engaged, we are ready to fhape out a diety like ourfelves, and to fafhion out fuch a god, as will, in Chrift at leaft, hug the very wickednefs of the world, and in thofe that be once his own, by I know not what fond affection, connive at their very fins, fo that they fhall not make the least breach betwixt himfelf and them. But there is no fuch god as this any where in the world, but only in fome mens false imagi nations, who know not all this, while, that they look upon themselves inftead of God, and make an idol of themfelves which they worship, for him; being fo full of themfelves that whatsoever they fee round about them, even God himself, they colour with their own tincture. But God will eyer dwell in fpotlefs light, howfoever we paint him and disfigure him here below; he will fill be cit cled about with his own rays of unftained and immaculate glory. And though the gofpel be not God as he is in his own brightness, but God veiled and masked to us, God in a state of humiliation and condefcent, as the fun in a rainbow: yet it is nothing else but a clear and unspotted mirror of divine ho linefs, goodnefs, purity; in which attributes lies the very life and,effence of God himfelf. The gofpel is nothing else but God defcending into the world in our form, and converfing with us in our likeness: that he might allure and draw us up to God, and make us partakers of his divine form (as Athanafus fpeaks,) God was therefore incarnated and made man, that he might deifie us, that is, (as St. Peter expreffeth it) make us partakers of the divine nature. Now, I fay, the very proper character and effential tincture of God himself is nothing else but goodness. Nay, I may be bold to add, that God is there fore God, because he is the highest and most perfect good, and good is not therefore good, becaufe God out of an arbitrary will of his would have it fo. Whatfoever God doth in the world, world, he doth it as fuitable to the highest goodnels; the idea and faireft copy of which is his own effence. That I may come nearer to the thing in hand: God, who is abfolute goodness, cannot love any of his creatures and take pleasure in them, without bestowing a communication of his goodness and likeness upon them. God cannot make a gofpel, to promise men life and happiness hereafter without being regenerated and made partakers of his holiness. As foon may heaven and hell be reconciled together, as God can be fondly indulgent to any fin, in whomfoever it be. As foon may light and darkness be espoused together, and midnight be married to the noon-day as God be joined in a league of friendship to any wicked soul. [To be continued.] ****** Of ATTENDING the CHURCH, In a Letter to the EDITOR of the Arminian Magazine. "Rev. Sir, "AM, as you are, an Arminian. I am well acquainted with your religious Tenets, and have read moft, if not all of your works; and though I do not entirely fall in with you, in every Article of your Creed, yet I have much respect to your Character, great reverence for your Principles in general, and an entire affection for your Perfon. Depending upon the acknowledged candour of your difpofition, and your uni form zeal for the Truth, I expect your attention and Answers to the following Questions. "Is it your wifh that the people called Methodifts fhould be, or become, a Body entirely feparate from the Church ?" Answer. No. |