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heart not to choose my own, but the ways of God,

as soon

as I knew them, I therefore reflected,' But what if God would have it so ?'

Thus I consented; and thought now I had gained great accession of merit to the list of my good works, by conquering my own will with such fortitude. As I carefully avoided all that savoured of Herrnhut, and the doctrine and ways of the United Brethren, having conceived the most strange ideas of them, I had likewise, on that account, lost all confidence in my relations, whom I knew to be connected with that community. I used all possible precaution not to enter into any conversation with them on such topics as they were fond of; and they, on their part, acted very prudently in not obtruding them upon me. They, however, did not suffer themselves to be hindered by my presence from conversing on the happiness they enjoyed in Jesus, on his love to sinners, on our innate depravity, and on the inefficacy of all our works; all which I took to be rank hypocrisy, having a very exalted idea of the powers of the soul of man, and of his dignity and virtues. I felt such an extreme enmity in my heart against this doctrine, and against our Saviour himself, to whom alone they ascribed all salvation, that, during such conversations, I could scarcely contain myself, for anger and vexation burning in all my veins.

To be concluded in our next.]

FEBRUARY REFLECTIONS.

O, Ephraim! what shall I do unto thee? O, Judah! what shall I do unto thee? - for your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew, it goeth away. Hosea vi. 4.

If the first month of the New Year taught the necessity of new purposes and resolutions, no sooner has the second arrived, than we are reminded of the inconstancy of man, and the evanescent nature of mere impressions. How many have already found that the solemn views of the hasty flight of time and the near approach of eternity, which were forced upon them by the new year, are now vanishing before the old kill-time spirit, which, probably, will last till next year, if they themselves last till then! Thus, O eternal Judge, we seem wise for a day, and foolish for years! Ah! were we wise for eternity, the first day of February would recall, revive, and enforce the impressions of the New Year's Day! Should we not then exclaim,' What! a month of 1812 gone already!'Did I feel, at its commencement, the force of the warning, "This year thou shalt die ?” thou shalt die ?" If that were spoken to me, and

1 am to die before this year is out, how soon may that be! But how many of the plans and resolutions I formed for the new year, have not lasted to the second month of it! They have given way before my old habits of living without plan, without design, like a ship dismasted, and deprived of its rudder, driving at the mercy of winds and tides! February may indeed, often correct, with great propriety, the romantic part of the new year's plans; and thus render them more solemn, practicable, and pleasant. Many young professors form plans fit only for angels, by which they overstrain their powers as long as they attempt to persevere; and when compelled to abandon them, they sink into desponding debility and slavish terrors, as if they bad broken some solemn commands of the divine word, or had apostatized from the faith and hope of the gospel; but courage, Christian; revise thy plans, but not abandon them. Neither obstinately adhere to them, as if thy first resolves were of infallible wisdom, or of divine authority; nor yield to the idea of living without those rules of wisdom and duty which a conscientious review of time has dictated. Consider, Jesus does not gather where he has not strawed.

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Perhaps, however, February has betrayed the awful secret, that the impressions of the new year were merely the goodness of Ephraim, a morning cloud, an early dew that passeth away.' The new year's schemes were not those of a new heart, composed of flesh, to which it is natural to feel, to be warm and lively; but the heart was a stone still, though it was, on New Year's Day, covered with a damp, such as in moist weather makes stones appear as if they were melting. Thus some deceive themselves; and others, by appearances of conversion, under the impressions of awful discourses at the end of a year, on death, judgment, eternity, or under the attractive influence of Invitations to the Young on New Year's Day. Thus many fancy themselves repentant and regenerate, because the alarins of a dangerous illness have changed the current of their thoughts and feelings; but, O ye children of Ephraim, ye men of momentary religion, yonder Christian will teach you to distinguish between this and genuine conversion. I have been,' says the Christian,' on the borders of eternity: I have felt the blaze of Christ's glory flashing on my admiring eyes; my heart throbbed with the delightful hope of being the next moment for ever free from sin; spirit stretched its wings to ascend and join the choir of saints and seraphs. I have bidden farewell to wife and children, and all that was dear to me in life, feeling that one Christ outweighed all, and that to depart and be with Christ was far better; but, ah! Iwas commanded to return back to Earth again; and so far was I from being sure that I should always thus feel, that I trembled every step of me down the mount, lest I

my

should immediately, lose those heavenly views and feelings, and live again but as I lived before. Some lasting benefit I hope I have received; but the degree of iny religion is still determined by the gradual increase of the heavenly principle implanted in me long before, and not by the force of the impressions made in some happy moment of revival.

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Cease then, O man, to trust to the impressions of illness, or of a solemn season of the year! See that thy heart be created anew in Christ Jesus, that the Spirit of Christ, who quickeneth the dead, dwell in thee, that all thy views and feelings be constantly and steadily influenced by his grace, and thy existence be consecrated to his glory. Then shall February correct, indeed, what was chimerical in thy expectations, and change thy Utopian for practicable plans; but, it shall still mature the resolutions of the opening year, and quicken thee in devoting to him more ardently a year, of, which the twelfth part is gone already. This shall be to thee, the language of this second month: Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, counsel, nor device in the grave, whither thou goest.' Romsey.

ON THE INTERNAL EVIDENCE

J. B.

WHICH THE FOUR GOSPELS AFFORD,
CONCERNING THEIR RESPECTIVE AUTHORS.

In the New Testament we find four separate accounts of the ministry and sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ. Two of these narratives are ascribed to apostles, or persons who were eye-witnesses of his actions, and were chosen by him, that they might bear testimony to others of what they knew from personal observation. The other two gospels are ascribed to persons who, though not apostles, are mentioned repeatedly in the New Testament, as assistants of the apostles in their labours. It is proposed briefly to examine, Whether the Gospels afford any internal evidence, that they really were written by the persons to whom they are commonly ascribed? The authors of the gospels do not, like those of the epistles, prefix or subscribe their names. Only one of them has dis tinguished the part which he shared in events which he relates; and this, only by describing himself as that disciple whom Jesus loved." John xxi. 20, 24.-Our Lord manifested wonderful affection to his disciples in general; but he evidently treated three of them, Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, with greater familiarity and confidence than the rest. Numerous parts of the narrative shew that Peter was not the

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writer; and, of the two sons of Zebedee, James was martyred Jong before it appears to have been written. The apostle JoHN, therefore, to whom it is commonly ascribed, was the only person answering to the deseription which the author gives of himself. His aim evidently was not to relate the whole course of our Lord's ministry. He chiefly records facts and discourses that are not inserted in the other three gospels; which intimates, that he knew what the other evangelists had written. All that he relates rests on his personal knowledge; and he professes to have omitted much that he knew, from the impossibility of detailing the whole.

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Of the first three gospels, the only one which affords any explicit designation of its author, is that which is commonly ascribed to Luke, the beloved companion of the apostle Paul. (Colossians iv. 14; 2 Tim. iv. 11.) He inscribes his history. of our Lord to the same person to whom he afterwards inscribed a history of events subsequent to the ascension of Christ, especially of those which related to Paul. In the latter of these works, he refers to the former as his performance; and he plainly intimates his own share in the transactions of Paul's ministry, by writing in the first person plural: (Acts xvi. 10) We endeavoured to go into Macedonia;' and (xx. 4) these going before, tarried for us at Troas, and WE sailed,' &c. Again, at Jerusalem (xxi. 18) Paul went in with us unto James; and (xxvii. i, 2) that we should sail into Italy,' &c.; and finally, we came to Rome.' This gospel was evidently, therefore, written by a companion of Paul; and as he mentions, in the Acts of the Apostles, Silas, Timothy, Tychicus, and most other friends of Paul, distinctly from himself, it is nearly certain (especially in connexion with various passages of Paul's epistles) that the author of our third gospel could be no other than Luke. The account also, which he gives in the first four verses of his gospel, of his motive and design in the undertaking, strikingly' agrees with his circumstances, as indicated by the preceding references. 1, He ranks himself, not among those who from the beginning were eye-witnesses and ministers of the word;' but with those to whom they had delivered it. 2, He asserts, notwithstanding, that he had had perfect understanding of all things from the very first;' which, in this connexion, must signify, that he had obtained certain information concerning the history of Christ, even from its earliest stage. Accordingly, it appears that Luke, although he first joined company with Paul at Troas, and remained behind him at Philippi, rejoined him there, some years afterwards, and accompanied him to Judea; and, as he left that country again with Paul, who had been more than two years confined at Cesarea, Luke appears to have spent this interval in Judea, where he must have had ample opportunity to acquire the knowledge of

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which he speaks. There is, therefore, every internal proof, of which the Evangelists' style admit, that the third of our gospels (as they are usually placed in the New Testament) was written by LUKE.

Mark, to whom the second gospel is attributed, was the son of Mary, at whose house the apostles assembled in Jerusalem (Acts xii. 12) and who was sister to Barnabas (Colos. iv. 10). In consequence, apparently, of this affinity, Barnabas chose Mark to accompany himself and Paul, on their joint mission to the Heathen (Acts xiii. 5); and afterwards retained him as the companion of his separate mission (xv. 37, 39). The displeasure which Paul had then conceived against Mark, was evidently removed, during that apostle's first confinement at Rome, where Mark attended him (Philemon v. 24.) He seems to have proceeded, soon afterwards, to Colossé; and thence to have accompanied the apostle Peter, through Asia Minor, to Babylon; as the latter, in his epistle from that city, to the Greek Christians of the provinces through which he had passed, mentions Mark, with the endearing appellation of his son (Peter i. 1; and v. 13.) He probably returned with Peter to Ephesus; since Paul, who was then again at Rome, desires Timothy, who chiefly resided at the former city, to bring Mark with him to the latter (2 Tim. iv. 12.) This occurred shortly before the martyrdom of Paul (6-8); with whom Peter is said to have suffered. He, therefore, probably accompanied Timothy and Mark to Rome.

These circumstances perfectly agree with the slight intimations which our second gospel affords concerning its author, as well as with the most early tradition, that it was written soon after the martyrdom of those two apostles, and chiefly from information which Peter had given. It contains more precise accounts than the other gospels, of various circumstances relating to Peter; yet suppresses several which tended to his honour, while it inserts such as aggravated his failings. From the preceding references, it appears that Mark, when a very young man, might be present at the closing events of our Lord's ministry: and the usual manner in which the evangelists intimate their own participation in transactions, renders it probable that Mark might be the youth who escaped out of Gethsemane (Mark xiv. 51, 52); and not unlikely that he might also be the companion of Cleopas, when going to Emmaus (compare Mark xvi. 12, 13, with Luke xxiv.13—35); for Mark is peculiar in naming persons of whom he writes, except in these instances. The internal evidence, therefore, of our second gospel (as far as it goes) indicates that it was written by MARK.

There is little in the gospel ascribed to Matthew from which we could infer more respecting its author, than that he was an eye-witness of most that he relates; and that he wrote es

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