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M. We bless thee, O Lord;-A. And render thanks to thee, our God.

M. May the divine affiftance remain with us for ever. -A. Amen.

M. O God, unto thy gracious mercy and almighty protection we humbly commit ourselves. O Lord, bless us, and keep us: O Lord, make thy face to fhine upon us, and be gracious unto us: O Lord, lift up thy countenance upon us, and give us peace, both now and evermore.-A.

Then rife, and conclude with

Amen.

M. Bleffed be the Holy and Undivided Trinity now and for evermore.-A.

Amen.

The COLLECT for Sundays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays.

For Sundays.

O God, who haft glorified our victorious Saviour with a vifible triumphant refurrection from the dead and afcenfion into heaven, where he fitteth at thy right hand the world's fupreme governor and final judge: grant, we beseech thee, that his triumphs and glories may ever fhine in our eyes, to make us more clearly fee through his fufferings, and more couragioufly wade through our own; being affured by his example, that if we endeavour to live and die like him, for the advancement of thy love in ourselves and others, thou wilt raise again our dead bodies too, and conforming them to his glorious body, call us up above the clouds, and give us poffeffion of thine everlasting kingdom; through the fame Lord Jefus Chrift thy Son, who with Thee and the Holy Ghoft, liveth and reigneth one God, world without end. Ámen.

For Wednesdays.

O Lord God Almighty, who to redeem loft mankind didft deliver up thine only Son to be fold by one of his familiar friends; grant us by the help of thy Spirit always to deteft and abhor our own fins, which were no less the occafion of his death, than the wicked Judas: And O thou, who didst permit thine own difciple to betray thee to thine enemies, and waft content to be apprehended by them; enable us to imitate, under all injuries and oppreffious, that meekness which admitted the traitor's kifs, and furrendered thy perfon

to

to those whom thy word had ftruck to the ground; and fave us.

Amen.

For Fridays.

O God, who at the price of thine only Son's laft drop of blood upon the cross, haft won our hearts from this life and all the goods of it, to the fole purfuit and hopes of thy felf in eternity; poffefs, we beseech thee, and abfolutely difpofe of what thou haft fo dearly paid for, mortifying us to the world, and confirming our courage to fight manfully under the banner of our crucified Saviour, that we may be able to stand the fhock of all temptations, and that nothing either in life or death may ever separate us from thy love in him, our glorious Redeemer, who with Thee and the Holy Ghoft, liveth and reigneth one God, bleffed for ever. Amen.

For Saturdays.

O Almighty Lord, the only wife and good Creator of the univerfe, who madeft all corporeal nature for the use of man, and man for his own felicity; enlarge our fouls, we beseech thee, humbly to admire and adore thy infinite fulness of Being in thy felf, and thy immenfe liberality of it to us; and mercifully carry on the whole creation to its end, vouchfafing fo to order all thy creatures about us by thy grace, that they may attain their perfection in duly ferving us, and we ours in eternally enjoying thee, through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord. Amen.

(To be concluded in our next.)

ON FELLTHAM'S RESOLVES.

FOR THE ORTHODOX CHURCHMAN'S MAGAZINE.

MR. EDITOR;

HE handfome mention which you were pleased to make in the number of your Magazine for June 1806, of 1 endeavour to restore to the knowledge of the public, the al

to

moft

moft quite forgotten Refolves of Owen Felltham, has encouraged me to requeft you to favour this letter with a place in your valuable publication.

From the very favourable reception which the new and revifed edition of the Refolves has met with, (an edition which confifted of one thousand copies) I fhall, in all probability, foon have occafion to prepare another for the prefs; and with a view of enlarging my "short account of the author and his writings," I am defirous of collecting what further particulars I can, refpecting both the one and the other. I hall, therefore, feel much obliged to any of your numerous and learned readers who may happen to perufe this article, who can inform me of any circumstances illuftrative of the hiftory of my favourite author; whether any branches of his family yet exift; as well as the names of any writers in or about his time, which fpeak of him or his productions. I also wish to ascertain if poffible, when Felltham died; and when the first edition of the Refolves appeared, and whether it confifted of one or two centuries. Was old Owen of either of our universities; and if he was, of which?

The Editor of the New and Revised Edition of Pentonville, Owen Felltham's Refolves.

Sept. 3, 1807.

A DEDICATION BY DR. JOHNSON.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCHMAN'

SIR,

WHAT I now fend

MAGAZINE.

WHAT I now fend you, carries fuch frong internal marks of having been written by Dr. Samuel Johnfon, that I doubt not you will readily give it a place in your magazine. The Doctor, it is well known, compofed a great number of dedications and prefaces, for booksellers and authors, many of which he could not himself remember in after life. The present is a Dedication prefixed to two octavo volumes, entitled "The Evangelical History of our "Lord Jesus Christ, harmonized, explained, and illustrated, "with variety of notes, practical, historical and critical. By "a fociety of gentlemen. Printed for J. Newbery, at the Bible and Sun, in St. Paul's Churchyard. 1757."

The

The work, though a very good one, is written in a style very different from that of the dedication, which is a fufficient proof that the author of the one had no hand in compiling the other. I am, &c.

IOTA. TO THE LORDS SPIRITUAL AND TEMPORAL, AND COMMONS IN PARLIAMENT ASSEMBLED.

THAT we are fallen upon an age in which corruption is barely not univerfal, is univerfally confefsed. Venality fkulks no longer in the dark, but fnatches the bribe in publick; and proftitution iffues forth without fhame, glittering with the ornaments of fuccefsful wickedness. Rapine preys on the publick without oppofition, and perjury betrays it without enquiry. Irreligion is not only avowed but boafted; and the peftilence that used to walk in darkness, is now deftroying at noon day.

Shall this be the ftate of the English nation, and shall her lawgivers behold it without regard? Must the torrent continue to roll on till it shall fweep us into the bottomless gulph of perdition? Surely there will come a time when the carelefs fhall be frighted, and the fluggish shall be roufed: when every paffion fhall be put upon the guard by the dread of general depravity: when he who laughs at wickedness in his companion, fhall ftart from it in his child; when the man who fears not for his foul, fhall tremble for his poffeffions: when it shall be discovered that religion only can fecure the rich from robbery, and the poor from oppreffion; can defend the state from treachery, and the throne from assassination.

If this time be ever to come, let it come quickly a few years longer, and perhaps all endeavours will be vain. We may be fwallowed by an earthquake; we may be delivered to our enemies, or abandoned to that difcord, which muft inevitably prevail among men that have loft all fenfe of divine fuperintendence, and have no other motive of action or forbearance, than present opinion of prefent interest.

It is the duty of private men to fupplicate and propose, it is yours to hear and to do right. Let religion be once more reftored, and the nation fhall once more be great and happy. This confequence is not far diftant: that nation muft always be powerful, where every man performs his duty; and every man will perform his duty, that confiders himself as a being whofe condition is to be fettled to all eternity by the laws of Christ.

MM

Vol. XIII. Churchm. Mag. for O&t. 1807.

The

The only doctrine by which man can be made wife unto Jalvation, is the will of God, revealed in the books of the Old and the New Teftament.

To ftudy the Scriptures, therefore, according to his abili ties and attainments, is every man's duty; and to facilitate that study to those whom nature hath made weak, or education has left ignorant, or indifpenfible cares detained from regular proceffes of enquiry, is the business of those who have been bleffed with abilities and learning, and appointed the inftructors of the lower claffes of men, by that common Father, who diftributes to all created beings their qualifi cations and employments; and has allotted fome to the la bour of the hand, and fome to the exercife of the mind; has commanded fome to teach, and others to learn: has prefcribed to fome the patience of inftruction, and to others the meekness of obedience.

By what methods the unenlightened ignorant may be made proper readers of the word of God, has been long and diligently confidered. Commentaries of all kinds have indeed been copiously produced; but there ftill remain multitudes to whom the labours of the learned are of little use, for whom expofitions require an expofitor. To thofe indeed, who read the divine books without vain curiofity, or a desire to be wife beyond their powers, it will always be eafy to difcern the ftrait path, to find the words of everlasting life. But fuch is the condition of our nature, that we are always attempting what is difficult to perform: he who reads the Scripture to gain goodness, is defirous likewife to gain knowledge, and by his impatience of ignorance, falls into error.

This danger has appeared to the doctors of the Romish church, fo much to be feared, and fo difficult to be escaped, that they have fnatched the Bible out of the hands of the people, and confined the liberty of perufing it to those whom literature has previoufly qualified. By this expedient they have formed a kind of uniformity, I am afraid, too much like that of colours in the dark: but they have certainly ufurped a power which God has never given them, and precluded great numbers from the higheft fpiritual confolation.

I know not whether this prohibition has not brought upon them an evil which they themselves have not discovered. It is granted, I believe, by the Romanists themselves, that the best commentaries on the Bible have been the works of Proteftants. I know not indeed, whether fince the celebrated paraphrase of Erafmus, any scholar has appeared amongst them, whose works are much valued, even in his own communion.

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