tered, He telles me, he hath pardoned all my sins for his name sake. Looke, now looke, he is preparinge a robe of righteousness for me-now he is writing my name in the book of life, and says I shall live with him for ever, yea, and with all his saints, even with Abraham, Isack, and Jacob, Samuel and Daniel, and all his holy ones. He hath made me as righteous as they, for they have only Christes righteousnesse, and so have I.'

O my friends, see how good the Lorde is to my poore soul! Now he pours the oil of gladness into my soule! Let me alone-let me alone, that I may goe unto him -O welcome sweet Lord JesusNow he is come into my soul, why will you not bid him welcome. O welcome, welcome sweet Lord Jesus.'

66

Many more such glorious expressions did she utter for the space of three houres. She delivered these sayings with such a smyling countenance as was very wonderful to see. She then complained of thirst, and grew semingly to us very heart sicke. She neither looked up or opened her eyes, or even her teeth, to take a spoonful of any thing. She then strove to goe, as she said, to Christ, so that four were employed to holde her, and some times were enforced to put forth very much strength to keep her in bed. They then lett her goe to see what shee would doe when she soe earnestly desired to goe to Christ, but she fell on the ground, and had noe strength at all to stand; and whilst her limbs were at libertie, she beat them through the earnestness of her desire. There being a Christian meeting at my house at that very time, prayer was made unto God for her, and about halfe an houre past six there were many friends in the chamber

with weeping eyes, beholding her. I then went to prayer by her bed side, and as soone as I had uttered this request, that God would both pardon my sins and hers, whatever they might be, and that he would immediately restore her, and command the distemper to cease-S she immediately opened her eyes, and looked up round about her, on which I earnestly desired the Lorde to give her strength to go down and declare his goodnesse to his assembled servants, that it might be a signe to them of his presence amonge them in their meetings, and that he would do it for the sake of Christ, who had purchased whatsoever a poor sinner should aske in his namewhen after manie more such petitions, I ended my prayers, and laid my handes on the bed to rayse myselfe off my knees, she reared herselfe up on the bed and said,

Father, I thanke you, God has heard your prayers;' and she immediatelye rose up, and went down and continued very well. Praise, honnour, thankes, be unto God's holy name."

Extraordinary as this occurrence was, yet I am happy to find, that it produced no fanatical effects upon the mind of Elenor, either at that time or afterwards. She regarded it, indeed, as a wonderful answer to prayer, and as confirmatory of the apostolical declaration, that the prayer of faith shall save the sick; but there is no reason from her journal to suppose, that she rested her hope of salvation upon the impressions of an imagination, most probably at that time disturbed by disease. Therefore in the next paragraph she says,

"I must own ye hardnes and insensiblenes of my spirit, that I was not at all sensible of all the great grace and kindness of God to me; but for a considerable

time after this I went on in a formall waye professing to serve the Lorde.'

"And now through the helpe of the holy Spirit, I will declare in what way and manner He wrought upon my spirit in my first conversion. I was from my childhoode well instructed in the truth, and blessed be God for the devoute example that was sett before me in my father's holy life. I was, therefore, never suffered to brake forthe into any grosse evills. The temper of my mind was fearfull and timid. Satan knowing my weakness, suited his temptations accordingly, and threw such suggestions into my mind, that I was afraid to go up and down the house; but these feares have very often driven me as by force to pour out my complaints before the Lorde.

"At other times I have had such a great sense of my lost estate, that I have looked on the dumbe creatures, and have thought how much better their condition than my owne whilst out of Christ-these have made me runne to godlie prayer, and there I have had reliefe. My mind was also awakened to these duties, by considering the shortnes of life, and that if I died without Christ I am undone for ever!

2.

The land of Zebulon and the land of
Naphtali;

At the latter time, he maketh them
glorious.

Towards the sea, on the coast of
Jordan, in Gallilee of the nations,

The people that were walking in dark.
ness see a great light;

They who dwelled in the land of the shadow of death

The light shineth on them.

4. Thou increasest the nation; thou augmentest their joy;

They rejoice before thee like the joy of harvest,

Like as men exult when dividing the spoil:

4. For their burdensome yoke, the rod for their back, the staff of their taskmaster,

Hast thou terribly broken; as in the day of Midian,

5. When every warrior put on his greaves with trembling,

And the nightcloak was rolled in blood, And became a burning, food for the fire. 6. For unto us a child is born; unto us a son is given;

7.

And the government shall be committed to him;

And his name shall be called,

The Wonderful, The Counsellor, The
Mighty God,

The increase and prosperity of his go-
The Eternal Father, The Peaceful Prince;

vernment are endless;

On the throne of David shall he sit,
And over his kingdom shall he rule,
To administer it, and to maintain it,
most righteously;

From this time forth, for ever and ever.
The zeal of Jehovah of hosts shall
perform this.

Of this prediction there are three parts.

I. The scene of its accomplishment, ver. 1.

1. Spread abroad," prin, is generally taken as a verbal noun from pr; and this might unquestionably be the case; for, with a slight variation of the pointing, the same word occurs, Job xxxvi. 16. Thus considered, however, the meaning, as every attentive reader must have observed, is embarrassed. The word in question may, with equal propriety, be considered as part. hoph. of pr', which, besides the meaning of pouring forth, has that of placing,

occur in the Hebrew Scriptures; but various modifications of their root are of frequent occurrence in Chaldee and Syriac, in the sense of putting on shoes, or greaves. As a literal rendering would, in English, be peculiarly awkward, the sense of the passage is expressed as nearly to the original as convenient phraseology would allow." Night-cloak "bow, is an ample robe worn by the orientals when at rest, (Gen. ix. 23; 1 Sam. xxi. 10.) and used as their covering by night. (Deut. xxii. 17.) -"And became a burning." It was customary for a victorious army to heap together, and consume by fire, the refuse of the spoil.

III. The cause of the change here foretold, ver 6, 7.

6. "Committed to him:" literally, "be on his shoulder;" the import of the figure is, that the weight of public administration should lie upon him. (Comp. chap. xxii. 22 )—“ His name shall be called:" literally, "he, or, one shall call," which is best rendered in English by the passive. The idiom is of frequent occurrence, especially in the use of the present verb." The Wonderful," is clearly a separate title; had it been intended to qualify ry, it must have followed that noun.

QUERIES ON BUILDING CASES.

(To the Editors.)

GENTLEMEN-In reading the "Remains" friend and amanuensis, Mr Morris, I was of the venerated Andrew Fuller, by his much struck with a paper, entitled, "Remarks on Public Collections for building Places of Worship."

Persuaded of the truth and justice of those remarks, and gratified by the important queries he proposes on this subject, I felt desirous that those of your readers who have not seen that interesting volume should sympathize with me in my convictions and pleasure, and determined, therefore, to extract part of them for insertion in your valuable miscellany. This determination I have carried into effect; and hoping that these "queries," with a few others, may meet with your approbation, and trusting that they may be the means of reducing the number of those "begging excursions" which are now so frequently made, and of counteracting that spirit of worldly policy which induces so many congregations to enlarge or rebuild their places of worship totally unable to defray, in the hope at an enormous expense, which they are only of a prospective increase to their numbers and respectability,

I remain, Gentlemen,
Your's, with great respect,
HONESTUS.

"1. OUGHT not congregations to be contented with places of worship suited to their circumstances?

2. Is there not often more zeal exercised about the outward building, to gratify a popular taste, and appear with a sort of secular grandeur to the world, than there is manifested to enlarge, beautify, and build up that truly spiritual edifice, the church of God.

"3. If professors have a proper regard for real Christianity, personal and social, they will not be at a loss for a place to assemble in, to observe the laws of Christ. When this was the case in the first age, and the greatest part of the second, do we read of any such thing as collections for building

houses of public worship? They had no stately temples; their collections were only for their poor brethren, and the expenses of their several societies.

"4. Is there not oftentimes as much money spent by our modern collectors, in travelling from town to town, as would provide a decent place of worship for most of our congregations?

"5. Are the monies thus collected always invested in hands which the majority of the society most approve? I am misinformed, if this be universally the case.

"6. Would it not be better to confine these collections to districts, when the state and circumstances of the congregation are known?

"7. Should not ministers and respectable persons be very careful in signing recommendations of petitions, when they are not well acquainted with the particulars of the case? I have known this to be too often done, in order to get rid of the petitioners, and send them off to another congregation."

To these important queries may be joined three others.

8. To those recommendations which ministers may conscientiously give from intimate knowledge of the circumstances of the "case," is it not very desirable that the dates of the month and

year should be affixed? It is a well-known fact, that some" cases" are now, or have very lately been, before the public, whose recommendations were given from ten to fifteen years ago.

9. In all applications, ought there not to be a particular inquiry made into the necessity for the erection, enlargement, or re-erection of the building-the circumstances of the people-the efforts they themselves have made, both previously and subsequently to

the commencement of the building; and then should not the subscriptions be given or withheld according to the merits or demerits of the " case," and not according to the character of the applicant, as he may be bold or diffident in his solicitations?

10. As there will occasionally arise a necessity that "a case" should be submitted to the religious public, and as the establishment of a general building fund seems impracticable or inexpedient, would it not be desirable, that, in large towns, where there are several dissenting congregations, a united committee, for the examination of cases, should be formed-and that the people should be earnestly requested to relieve no case whatever, which had not the sanction and signature of the committee-or in small places, where a committee is unnecessary, the signature of the resident minister?

A WORD TO THE DEPUTIES.
(To the Editors.)

GENTLEMEN-It is said that " a word to the wise is enough." I have been between twenty and thirty years connected with a congregation of Dissenters, one of the oldest in London, who have sent Deputies from the time of their first appointment in 1732. In looking over their lists, I believe it will be found, that till very recently, the same persons were almost constantly elected on their Committee. This evil, for such I suppose it came to be regarded, was tempted to be remedied in December 1814, when it was resolved, "That no Deputy be eligible to the Committee for more than three successive years." This not producing the intended effect, or to a very limited extent, another resolution was passed, January

at