among themselves, but did the fame in all churches to the people, nay, they fcrupled not to declare, "that if they might not preach they would not fight." To fuch a degree arofe herefy and blafphemy, that the moft solemn ordinances of religion were flighted and profaned. The neglect of the Lord's Supper was general, and at Chrift-Church, Oxford, where the noted Dr. John Owen prefided, it was not so much as once administered during the whole time of the ufurpation, and the fame person who administered it before his expulfion by the visitors, at his return after twelve years, administered the next facrament in that great cathedral. I fhall conclude this letter with the following curious article extracted from Dr. Grey's Notes to Hudibras, which exhibits an accurate portraiture of that miferable period, and holds out a warning against the encouragement of Schism, highly deferving the ferious attention of those who prefer order, peace, and piety-to confufion, rebellion, and blas phemy. I am, Sir, &c. КАРРА. "Mechanics of all forts were then preachers, and some of them much followed and admired by the mob. "I am to tell thee, Chriftian reader," fays Dr. Featley, Preface to his Dipper dipped, wrote 1645, and published 1647, p. 1, “this new year of new changes, never heard of in former ages; namely, of ftables turned into temples (and I will beg leave to add, temples turned into stables, as was that of St. Paul's, and many more), ftalls into quires, fhopboards into communion tables, tubs into pulpits, aprons into linen ephods, and mechanics of the loweft rank into priests of the high places-I wonder that our door pofts and walls fweat not upon which fuch notes as these have been lately affixed: On fuch a day, fuch a brewer's clerk exercifeth, fuch a taylor expoundeth, fuch a waterman teacheth.-If cooks, inftead of mincing their meat, fall upon dividing of the word; if tailors leap up from the fhopboard into the pulpit, and patch up fermons out of ftolen fhreds; if not only of the loweft of the people, as in Jeroboam's time, priefts are confecrated to the Moft High God:-do we marvel to fee fuch confufion in the church as there is ?" They are humouroufly girded, in a tract entitled, The Reformado precifely charactered, by a modern church-warden, p. 11. Pub. Libr. Camb. xix. 9, 7. "Here are are felt-makers (fays he) who can roundly deal with blockheads and neutral dimicafters of the world; coblers who can give good rules for upright walking, and handle Scripture to a briftle; coachmen, who know how to lafh the beaftly enormities and curb the headstrong infolences of this brutish age, ftoutly exhorting us to ftand up for the truth, left the wheel of deftruction roundly over-run us. We have weavers that can fweetly inform us of the fhuttle-fwiftnefs of the times, and practically tread out the viciffitude of all fublunary things, till the web of our life be cut off; and here are mechanics of my profeffion, who can feparate the pieces of falvation from thofe of damnation, measure out every man's portion, and cut it out by a thread, fubftantially preffing the points till they have fashionably filled up their work with a well-bottomed conclufion." Mr. Tho. Hall, in proof of this fcandalous practice, publifhed a tract, entitled, The Pulpit guarded by Seventeen Arguments, 1651, occafioned by a difpute at Henley in Warwickshire, Aug. 20, 1650, against Laurence Williams, a nailer, public preacher; Tho. Palmer, a baker, public preacher; Thomas Hind, a plough-wright, public preacher; Henry Oaks, a weaver, preacher; Hum. Rogers, late a baker's boy, public preacher. "God keep the land from fuch translators, Mercurius infanus infaniffimus, No. 3. An Explanation of GALATIANS, iii. 19. 20. By the late Paul had proved before, that the Law did not abolish the Promife; his last reafon was, because then the inheritance fhould have been by the Law, which could not poffibly be. Against this reafon there is an objection made, and anfwered in the verfes now under confideration. The objection 3 K Vol. XIII. Churchm. Mag. for December 1807. objection is this: If Juftification and Life come not by the Law, then the Law was given in vain. This objection is expreffed by way of interrogation, Wherefore then ferveth the Law? The answer is, It was added because of Tranfgreffions; that is, for the revealing of fin, and the punishment thereof, and for the conviction of men touching their fins; fee Rom. iii. 19, 20. In the next words the apostle fets down the time, or continuance, of this use of the Law; till the feed fhould come to whom the Promife was made; that is, till Chrift fhould come, and accomplish the work of man's Redemption. And here two questions may be started: Firft, Whether the Law ferves to reveal fin after the coming of Chrift? For St. Paul fays, It was added because of transgreffions till Chrift, &c. I anfwer, that the Law ferves to reveal fin, even to the end of the world; yet, in respect of the legal or Mofaical manner of revealing fin, it is added only till Chrift. For the Law, before Chrift, did convince men of fin, not only by precepts and threatenings, but also by rites and ceremonies. For Jewish wafhings and facrifices were real confeffions of fin. And they were an hand-writing against us, as St. Paul fpeaks. And this manner of revealing fin ended in the death of Chrift. Col. ii. 14. Again, the ministry of condemnation, which was in force till Christ, was, at his coming, turned into the miniftry of the fpirit and of grace, Cor. i 11. For, under the Law, there was a plentiful revelation of fin, with an obfcure and fmall revelation of grace: but, at the coming of Chrift, men saw heaven opened, and there was a plentiful revelation of fin with a more plentiful revelation of grace and mercy. And in this respect also the Law is faid to be until Christ. The fecond question is, Whether the feed of Abraham were before Chrift, or no? I answer, All that followed the fteps of Abraham's faith before Chrift, were his feed. Yet they were not that feed, i. e. the principal feed, which is Chrift, who is the feed bleffed in himself, and giving bleffednefs unto all others. And the believers that were before Chrift, or after hini, are the feed of Abraham, because they are fet into Chrift, who is principally the feed mentioned in this text. But to proceed in the Expofition. This Law, fays the apoftle, was ordained by angels, in the hand of a Mediator. This feems to be added, in proof of what he had afferted before; as if he had faid, That the Law ferves to discover tranfgreffions is evident from hence, that the Jews could not not abide to receive it from God, but it was delivered by angels, and received by the hand of a Mediator; for this proves man's guiltinefs, and his enmity with God; fince a Mediator is of two at least, and of two that are at variance with each other. The Law is faid to be ordained or difpofed by angels, because they were attendants on God in the Mount, when the Law was delivered. Secondly, They were witneffes and approvers of the delivery. Thirdly, It is probable, that the voice of God, whereby the Law was published, in the hearing of all the Ifraelites, was uttered and pronounced by the miniftry of angels: for the Holy Ghoft faith, The word Spoken by angels was fedfaft, Heb. ii. 2. that is, the Law. But it may yet be faid, that all this does not prove, that angels ordained the Law. I anfwer, That very often, in Scripture, the work or action of the principal agent is afcribed to the inftrument, or_minifter. Thus the faints are faid to judge the world, I Cor. vi. whereas they are no more than witneffes and approvers of this judgement. In the fame manner, Timothy is faid to fave himself and others, 1 Tim. iv. 16. The last trumpet is founded by angels, Matth. xxiv. 31. And it is called the voice of the archangel, and trump of God, 1 Theff. iv. But whom are we to understand by the Mediator mentioned in this verfe? Chrift, fay fome. Surely not. For the hand of a Mediator fignifies the miniftry and service of a Mediator; and this fervice is inferior to the fervice of angels; because the Law was delivered by angels, and received of them by a Mediator. Therefore the Mediator, here spoken of, muft certainly be Mofes, who stood between the people and God, when the Law was delivered, Deut. v. 5. If it bé objected from Scripture, that there is but one Mediator, even Chrift, 1 Tim. ii. 8. the answer is obvious, That the Mediator of reconciliation is one only, even Jefus; and that Mofes was a Mediator only in the relating and reporting of the law from God to the Ifraelites. The apoftle adds, that a Mediator is not of one, i, e. (as I obferved before) every Mediator is between two at leaft, and those at variance: but God is one, continues he, that is, always the fame and like himself without change. The argument in this place feems to be this: St. Paul had taught, that the law was given by a Mediator, and that this declared a difference or difagreement between God and man: now it might be faid, where is the fault in this difagreement, and who is the cause of it? The apoftle faith, Not God, but man; because God is always one and the fame. ON OLD AGE. TO THE EDITOR OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCHMAN'S SIR, A MAGAZINE. CORRESPONDENT, in your Magazine for O&ober last, has favoured us with a Picture of Old Age, in a comment on the 12th chapter of Ecclefiaftes. I will beg leave therefore to offer a few more observations and remarks on this fubject; and to refer to several useful explanations of this difficult and interefting part of Holy Scrip ture. The first I fhall mention, is a tract written by John Smith, M. D. intituled King Solomon's Pourtraiture of Old Age, Anthony Wood obferves that this is a philofophic difcourfe though upon a facred theme, and therein is to be met with an ingenious obfervation concerning the antiquity of the doctrine of the blood's circulation. Matthew Poole in the second volume of his Synopfis, makes an honourable mention and use of it. The author was in his time one of the college of physicians, and eminent for his practice in London. I have a fecond edition of the work, printed in the year 1666, and it was reprinted in London in 1758. Dr. Mead in his Medica Sacra has appropriated a chapter to this fubject, entitled Senectus Morbus. Bishop Lowth in his Prælectiones de Sacrâ Poefi Hebræorum, Præl. x. de Allegoriâ, thus elegantly and forcibly expreffes' himself. Eximium in hoc genere "Exemplum præbet notiffima illa Salomonis Allegoria, quâ fenectutis effigiem mirificè adumbravit. Exprimuntur ingravefcentis ætatis incommodo, animi debilitatio, fenfuum torpor, corporis imbecillitas, imaginibus variis à naturâ et vitâ, communi petitis, docte fanè et elegantè fed valde obfcurè. Hoc enim ænigmate pro more fapientum Orientalium lectorum fuarum acumen explorarè voluit Salomo. Itaque plurimum exercuit doctorum ingenia, quorum multi varia quidem, sed eruditè et acute locum explicaverunt." And in a note on this paffage, he refers to, and makes honourable mention of the two authors before spoken of. "De hoc loco confule præ cæteris omnibus eruditum commentarium doctiffimi medici Johannis Smith fuperiore fæculo editum. Vide etiam quæ de |