"2nd. B. Do not ask me: I cannot leave her: no, I will live and die with her. I am sure, if I had been the first, she would not have left me. Besides, brother, it may not be safe for you to have me go, for to be sure I have the seeds of the distemper about me by this time."

The sister recovers after a sweet sleep, and the whole party go on board a vessel in the river, and remain there in safety till the plague ceases. The following, we would hope, is an historical fact; and the mention of it is in close connexion with the general subject of this paper, from which we may seem to have wandered.

"Our party had not been here above three days, when the headmost ship, or that which lay at the upper end of the Reach, made a signal to the rest, which they answered, but the new comers did not understand. The headmost ship's boat however soon came alongside, with the ship's mate on board, and having hailed the captain said, he was ordered to acquaint him, that the next day was that which the six ships, ever since they had ridden there in company, had agreed to keep as a weekly fast, in order to beg of Almighty God, to preserve them from the pestilence; and that they would be glad if he and his company would please to join them in it. This proposal was thankfully acceded to, and the day regularly observed, on its weekly return, as a day of strict religious fasting and humiliation.""

Mr. Scott furnishes many useful, explanatory, and hortatory notes, which deserve careful perusal, if the reader can be seduced from the narrative to glance at them. The whole book, as our readers will have seen, is very interesting.

While thus cursorily noticing De Foe's History of the Plague, God's Voice in the Plague, Preparations for the Plague, and the appointment of fasting and humiliation on account of it, we must not forget Shaw's well-known "Welcome" to it. It is a truly blessed treatise on converse with God;" and we should be fain to quote largely from it if it were not already deservedly popular, and reprinted for cheap sale. It contains passages of tenderness, of spirituality, and of elevation, which cannot be perused without deep emotion. With what simplicity, what resignation, does the writer allude to his sharp and painful trial.

"It is now more than seven months since it pleased the holy and wise God to visit my house with the plague (in 1666), when some dear and Christian friends from London were with me, whereby he gently touched and gave warning to myself and whole family, consisting then of eight souls, but called away hence only three members of it, namely, two tender babes and one servant, besides my beloved sister, and a child of my precious friend, that man of God, Mr. G. C. since also translated, who were of those citizens that visited me. You will easily believe that I can have no pleasure to rake into the ashes of the dead, nor to revive the taste of that wormwood and gall which was then given me to drink; and yet I see no reason but that I ought to take pleasure in the pure and holy will of God, which always proceeds by the eternal rules of almighty love and goodness, though the same be executed upon my dearest creaturecomforts, and grate ever so much upon my sweetest earthly interest; yea, and I see all reason in the world why I should give to God the glory of his attributes and works before all the world, and endeavour that some instruction may accompany that astonishment, which from me and my house, hath gone out and spread itself far and wide."

My design is to justify and glorify infinite wisdom, righteousness, goodness, and holiness, before all men. O blessed God! who makest a seeming dungeon to be indeed a wine cellar; who bringest his poor people into a wilderness, on set purpose there to speak comfortably to them! Be of good cheer, O my soul, he hath taken away nothing but what he gave: and in lieu of it hath given thee that which shall never be taken away, the first-fruits of life, instead of those whom the first born of death hath devoured. But why do I say devoured? Doth not that truly live at this day, which was truly lovely in those darlings? Didst thou, O my fond heart, love beauty, sweetness, ingenuity, incarnate? And canst thou not love it still in the fountain, and enjoy it in a more immediate and compendious way? Thy body indeed cannot taste sweetness in the abstract, nor see beauty, except as subsisting in matter; but canst not thou, O my soul, taste the uncreated goodness and sweetness, except it be embodied, and have some material thing to commend it to thy palate?"

"Let me call upon men and angels to help me in celebrating the infinite and almighty grace and goodness of the eternal and blessed God, who enabled me to abide the day of his coming,' (Mal. iii. 2,) to stand when he appeared, and made me willing to suffer him to sit as a refiner of silver in my house; who carried me above all murmurings

against, I had almost said all remembrance of, those instruments that conveyed the infection to me: who reconciled my heart to this disease, so that it seemed no more grievous or noisome than any other; who subdued me to, I had almost said brought me in love with, this intimation of the Divine will. I can remember (alas! that I can say little more but that I do remember) how my soul was overpowered, yea and almost ravished with the goodness, holiness, and perfection of the will of God; and verily judged it my happiness and perfection, as well as my duty, to comply cheerfully with it, and be moulded into it; who gave me a most powerful and quick sense of the plague of a carnal heart, self-will, and inordinate creature-loves, convincing me that those were infinitely worse than the plague in the flesh; who wonderfully preserved me from the assaults of the devil; never let him loose, so much as to try his strength upon my integrity, to drive me to despondency, or to any uncharitable conclusion concerning my state; who enabled me to converse with his love and mercy, in the midst of his chastening; to see his shining and smiling face through this dark cloud; yea, kept up a clear and steady persuasion in my soul, that I was beloved of him, though afflicted by him; who knew my soul in adversity, visited me when I was sick and in prison, refreshed, strengthened, and comforted my inner man in a marvellous manner and measure, and made me appear to myself never less shut up, than when shut up. O would to God I might be never worse than when I was shut up of the plague! The not removing that affliction-frame I shall count a greater blessing and a more proper mercy, than the removing that afflicted state; who cleared up my interest in his Son, strengthened my evidences of his love, and assured my soul of its happy state, more than at all times formerly. I had clearer and surer evidences of Divine grace in that patient, self-denying, self-submitting frame of spirit, than in all the duties that I ever performed. The valley of tears brought me more sight of my God, and more insight into myself, than ever the valley of visions, all duties and ordinances had done when the Sun of righteousness arose upon my soul, and chased away all the mists and fogs of self-will and creature-love, then also did all black and dismal fears, all gloomy doubting, most sensibly flee before Him who maintained my health in the midst of sickness, in the midst of death, and supplied my family, from compassionate friends, with all things needful for food, physics, &c. The Lord return it seven-fold into their bosoms.

"I do not remember that either sorrow of mind or sickness of body ever prevailed so much upon me during three months' seclusion, as to hinder me of my ordinary study, repast, devotions, or my necessary attendance upon my several infected rooms, and administering to the necessities of my sick. These ensuing discourses were then composed, which do at least argue that through grace, this mind was not altogether discomposed, nor body neither; who preserved me, and gave me not up to death! for I judge that I was personally visited with the plague, though not with the sickness: who hath given me a sincere and settled resolution, and vehement desire to live entirely upon and to himself; which I account to be the only life of the soul, and only worthy to be called living. Grant me this prayer, O most blessed and gracious God, for the sake of my only and dear Redeemer.

"Thou, O Lord God, who art witness to all my thoughts, and words, and works, knowest that in truth and soberness I publish these things to the world, not to advance the reputation of my own silly name, or to be admired of my fellow-creatures, but for the glory of thy holy name, to beget a good liking of so gracious a Creator in all thy poor creatures, who are prejudiced against thee, and thy holy service; and to strengthen the hearts of thy servants to a firm and lasting adherence to thee even in the greatest extremities; that thou mayest be admired in thy saints, and be glorified for giving such power, and grace, and comfort, unto men. And that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works in and to the children of men.' (Psalm cvii. 8.)" We cannot lay down the work without copying two or three additional paragraphs.

"The beloved disciple leaning on the breast of his Lord at supper, was but a dark shadow, a poor imperfect resemblance of a beloved soul, which, by the lovely acts of joy, confidence, and delight, lies down in the bosom of Jesus, and confides in his allsufficiency. Then do we converse indeed feelingly and comfortably with his infinite fulness, when the soul is swallowed up in it, doth rest in it, is filled with it, and centred upon it. Oh the noble and free born spirit of true religion, that, disdaining the pursuit of low and created things, is carried out with delight to feed, and dwell, and live upon

uncreated fulness.

"Then is a soul raised to its just altitude, to the height of its being, when it can spend all its powers upon the supreme and self-sufficient good, delighting in God with full contentment. This is the soul's way of living above losses; and he that so lives, though he may be often a loser, yet, shall never be at a loss. He who feeds upon created goodness or sweetness, may soon eat himself out of all; the stock will be spent, and which is worse, the soul will be dried up, and hath nothing else to nourish it. But he who lives upon uncreated fulness, is never at a loss, though he lose ever

so much of the creature; for who will value the spilling of a dish of water, who hath a well of living water at his door, from whence he had that, and can have more as good, though not the same? Nay, to speak properly, this is the only way to lose nothing: for how can he be properly said to lose any thing who possesses all things? And so doth he, I am sure, who is filled with the fulness of God. Be sure, therefore, that in the want, in the loss of all things, you live upon the fountain-fulness, delight yourself in the Lord, after the example of the prophet Habakkuk iii. 17, 18. As the way of glorifying God in the world is not by a mere thinking of him, or entertaining some notion of his glory in our heads, but consists in a real participation of his image, in a godlike disposition and holy conversation, according to that of our Saviour, John xv. 8, Herein is my Father glorified, &c., so the way of conversing with God in his several attributes is not a thinking often with ourselves, and telling one another that God is just, wise, merciful, &c., though this be good; but it is a drinking in the virtue of these divine perfections, a working of them into the soul: and, on the other hand, the soul's rendering of itself up to God in those acts of grace which suit with such attributes, as, in water, face answereth face. I do not call the bare performance of duties, a conversing with God: prayer and meditation, are excellent means in and by which our soul converses with God; but communion with God is properly somewhat more spiritual, real, powerful, and divine, according as I described it just now. As for example, the soul receives the impressions of Divine sovereignty into it, and gives up itself unto God in the grace of self-denial, and humble subjection; the soul receives the communications of Divine fulness and perfection, and entertains the same with delight and complacency, and, as it were, grows full in them, even as the communications of the virtues of the sun are answered with life, and warmth, and growth in the plants of the earth. So a soul's conversing with the attributes of God is not an empty notion of them, or a dry discourse concerning them, but a reception of impressions from them, and a reciprocation of them; the effluxes of these from God, are such as beget reflections in man towards God. This is to know Christ, to grow up in him unto all things, according to that passage Whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him.' 1 John iii. 6."

Who can read sentiments like these, without mourning over the modern degeneracy of Christians? Where shall we meet with such passages in the present day; passages so full of spiritual pathos and heavenly mindedness? Perhaps it is that, though similar feelings exist in the soul, there is an unwillingness to obtrude them upon the world. It is at seasons of extreme trial that persons rise above the feeling of what is customary and allowable, and break forth in the language of the heart. Religion, which at less afflicting periods had been kept in decent retirement, and drilled to the supposed requisitions of propriety and good taste, now comes forward in all her dauntless energy; when the plague was in every street, and had entered almost every family, and the living scarcely sufficed to bury the dead, and no man knew that it might not be his own turn to-morrow or tonight, even prayer itself was considered in very good taste; nor was it thought incongruous to ask with regard to the soul as well as the body, "What must I do to be saved?" Trial, sickness, death, and eternity make many things very reconcilable to the sinful fastidiousness of the fallen mind, which would have been thought very obtrusive in the day of sportiveness and sunshine. Alas, even Christian men are too much overawed by this conventional canon of making religion so decorous that she is never to be seen but upon set days and in set places, and when ushered in with the ringing of bells. But when the hour of trial arrives, how absurd do such restrictions appear! On a death-bed the most timid Christian speaks of religion as if it really means something. God, and the soul, and heaven, and hell, are not passed over in silence and with decent propriety. Who could read without thrilling emotion the note, written, signed, directed, inclosed in a bottle, committed to the sea, and afterwards picked up in the West Indies, recording "The ship Kent, Indiaman, is on fire; E. J. and myself commit our spirits into the hands of our blessed Redeemer : His grace enables us to be composed in the awful prospect of entering into eternity. J. W. R. McGregor, 15th March, 1825; Bay of Biscay." Was such language inopportune then? Why then should it be at any time and in any CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 365.

2 X

place? What is the whole world but a city of the plague? And shall not all that it contains be soon burned up and the elements melt with fervent heat? What manner of men then ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness?

cause "

We now return to the form of prayer and order of fasting, issued by authority, July 1665, on occasion of the grievous pestilence then raging. The prayers were to be read every Wednesday; the fast was to be observed monthly. The exhortation, or homily, for this occasion was in substance the same as that in 1604, as copied in our Number for January, p. 21, but with occasional verbal alterations, and a few striking political and ecclesiastical interpolations. Thus, in the enumeration of the causes of the pestilence (January Number, p. 22), some are added which were not to be found in the exhortation of 1604, particularly that "there is among us here in England, a people that strive both with their princes and their priests; that obey not them that have the rule over them; that submit not themselves to such as by God's appointment watch over their souls." The date, 1665, abundantly explains these allusions, and the Reverend, Right Reverend, or Most Reverend revisor is not sparing of them. He makes the homily state that some of the chief causes of the pestilence were, bethe holy service and public worship of God in the beauty of holiness," that is, the restored form of the national church, "is snuffed at and opposed by a disobedient and gainsaying people; the portion of God is invaded, his altars robbed of tithes and offerings, and holy things of all sorts profanely and sacrilegiously devoured; for which crying sins, and finally for our great disobedience and irreverence to all our superiors, our untractable and ungovernable humour, our proneness upon occasion to sedition in the state and schism in the church, &c. &c." We fear that few persons were convinced by these arguments, who were not convinced before. In the mean time, while the pulpits of the Establishment were proclaiming that these things were among the causes of the pestilence; the Puritans urged just the contrary, and maintained that one of the chief reasons was the ejection of the Non-conformists. We can only say, looking at both sides, that great care should be taken in all public papers, and more especially in the solemn services of religion, to avoid party spirit and political invective, and not to represent the Almighty as pledged by our shortsighted differences. There was, very properly, nothing of this sort in the form of prayer on the late occasion; and we have reason to believe that the clergy in general abstained in a kindred spirit from inflammatory allusions, though we have heard of a few instances to the contrary, and of here and there a sermon which broadly hinted that the cholera was sent in consequence of the Reform Bill and the late and present measures towards Ireland. Such proceedings greatly offend against Christian propriety and

soberness.

We copy one of the prayers in the form for 1665, as a specimen of the service; most of which however, as before stated, is taken from earlier forms.

"O most gracious God, Father of mercies, and of our Lord Jesus Christ; look down upon us, we beseech thee, in much pity and compassion, and behold our great misery and trouble. For there is wrath gone out against us, and THE PLAGUE is begun. That dreadful arrow of thine sticks fast in our flesh, and the venom thereof fires our blood and drinks up our spirit; and shouldst thou suffer it to bring us all to the dust of death, yet must we still acknowledge, that righteous art thou, O Lord, and just are thy judgments. For our transgressions, multiplied against thee as the sand on the sea-shore, might justly bring over us a deluge of thy wrath. The cry of our sins, that hath pierced the very heavens, might well return with showers of vengeance upon our heads. While our earth is defiled under the inhabitants thereof, what wonder, if thou commandest an evil angel to pour out his vial into our air, to fill it with

infection, and the noisome pestilence, and so to turn the very breath of our life into the savour of death unto us all! But yet we beseech thee, O our God, forget not thou to be gracious, neither shut thou up thy loving kindness in displeasure. For his sake who himself took up our infirmities and bore our sicknesses; have mercy upon us, and say to the destroying angel, It is enough. O let that blood of sprinkling, which speaks better things than that of Abel, be upon the lintel and the two side posts in all our dwellings, that the destroyer may pass by. Let the sweet odour of thy blessed Son's all-sufficient sacrifice and intercession (infinitely more prevalent than the typical incense of Aaron), interpose between the living and the dead, and be our full and perfect atonement, ever acceptable with thee, that the plague may be stayed. O let us live, and we will praise thy Name, and these thy judgments shall teach us to look every man into the plague of his own heart; that being cleansed from all our sins, we may serve thee with pure hearts, all our days, perfecting holiness in thy fear, till we come at last where there is no more sickness nor death, through thy tender mercies in him alone, who is our life, and our health, and our salvation, Jesus Christ, our ever blessed Saviour and Redeemer. Amen."

After the cessation of the pestilence, a form of thanksgiving was ordered, of which the following is the tenor.

"We will magnify thee, O God our King, and will praise thy name for ever and ever; because in the midst of wrath remembering mercy, thou hast delivered our souls from death, and preserved us from the noisome pestilence. It is not for our righteousness, O Lord, nor for the cleanness of our hands in thy sight, that when thousands better than ourselves have fallen beside us, and ten thousand at our right hand, destruction has not come nigh us; but we yet remain alive, as it is this day. "Tis thou, O Lord, who dost wound and heal again, killest and makest alive, bringest to hell and back from thence. Thou hast vouchsafed above all human aids and means, such is thy power and goodness, to command thy angel to stay his hand, and spare us. therefore offer up unto thee at once, the oblation of our hearty thanksgiving for this our great deliverance, and of humble and earnest prayer for all those that are yet afflicted; beseeching thee for thy Son Jesus Christ his sake, to be gracious unto them and us, that both they and we in joint affection, may acknowledge the justice of our punishment, and record thine infinite mercy, in sparing us miserable sinners; and this we do in the name of thy Son and our Saviour, to whom with thee and the Holy Ghost, be all praise and glory, now and ever. Amen."

We

We find no other form of prayer and order of fasting, till the formulary of 1721, already quoted in our Number for last December, p. 742. We have thus arrived at the conclusion of our historical range, and trust that the retrospect will not have been found unprofitable. When we commenced our notices, the dreaded malady, though it had reached our shores, was confined within narrow limits, and had not been attended by the fearful depopulation which had been generally foreboded. It has since extended itself to various parts of the kingdom, and among others the metropolis itself; but its direful effects have been mercifully restrained, and at the moment we write there are hopeful symptoms of its abatement, both in London and in other parts of the kingdom. Before this reaches the eye of our readers, it may either have continued to realize this hope, or have broken out with new virulence. But we are in wise and merciful hands: God has hitherto dealt with us tenderly; many other cities and nations have suffered far more than we have done; and, while we are writing, intelligence has arrived of a sudden outburst of the disorder in Paris, compared with which our own visitation has hitherto been light indeed. May an all-wise and gracious Providence still protect us! But the visitation, or the fear of it, will not have been in vain if it be sanctified to that blessed purpose of bringing us nearer to God, and causing us to live as on the brink of eternity and in sight of heaven. "I die daily," said the Apostle; and this death he elsewhere shews us is true life; "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet, not I, but Christ liveth in me." Infinitely blessed is any trial or apprehension that leads to this result; and we would trust, we would earnestly believe, that the recent visitation has not been without this effect in numerous instances. The appearance of our religious assemblies on the fast day was a hopeful symptom of the spirit in which not a few of the inhabitants of this highly favoured but ungrateful nation have received the Divine ad