Newton into "Nature and Nature's laws;" and enlarged and established upon the firmest basis, by his illustrious successors, especially Clairaut and La Place, from a cautious and skilful application of his first rule of philosophizing, combined with their noble improvements of his sublime analysis, and correcter astronomical tables of Mayer, &c. and more exact instruments of Dollond, Ramsden, &c. CAUSAS rerum naturalium NON PLURES admitti debere, quam quæ et VERE sint, et earum phænomenis explicandis SUFFICIANT." "Dicunt utique philosophi: "NATURA nihil agit frustra," et "frustra fit per plura quod fieri potest per pauciora." NATURA enim simplex est, et rerum causis superfluis non luxuriat." THE MAGAZINE. E accompanying letter fell into my hands entirely by accident, & looking upon it as a curiosity, I thought you might perhaps allow it a place in your ma n I have delayed writing longer y usual, by reason of some disorder in this Town, by our Metho e 4 dist Vicar, among many irregular arbitrary doings he refused me y communion, who have many years quietly received it, & oft from his own hand, never once sig n nifying any scruple about it: but now openly w at y Table w he came to me in order, he fell to ask me ques n 1 th ⚫ts be te th e tions w I believed as to J..X being one Substance w y Father. I told him aloud, I believed w y Scripture said of him, and was not to Imposed on by such a one as He, &c: the parish in vestry have made, & by y Churchwardens, w others, have presented y Repræsentation and complaints, to y B., who has taken time till Monday seventhnight to send to y vicar, & to give an answer y day, and till then are silent as to other t e they A methods; you may expect more of y matter before it ends from Sr Yr Humble serv: As M Emilyn has not mentioned in the letter his place of abode, we have only conjecture for our guide to determine it. The letter was sent by the Penny Post, as the Post mark “ Peny Post Payd" shews. I believe Mr Emlyn, some time before his death in 1743, resided at Islington, the Vicar of which place, 'if I mistake not, ih 1739 was the Rev. Geo, Stonehouse; & I suppose this letter was sent from thence by the Penny Post to be forwarded by the General Post. It is addressed" For W Brockman Esq. at Beachborough, near Hythe, Kent." "It is indorsed in Mr Brock 1 man's th man's handwriting "Beachb. Rd 25 Aug. 1789.-N. ut intus T, Emlyn" & on another fold of the back Mr Brockman has copied the following extract, "Should any Clergyman, forgetting his Duty, Refuse t t a Parishion y Sacram. out of Passion or Prejudice, or wth any other finister View, he must thank himself for W. he shall suffer on that acc. And he will Deserve to suffer, whether his Parishion. had a Place, or had not One" Dean Sherlock's Vind. of y Corpor, & Test Acts 1718. p. 79. 1 n SIR, A MAGAZINE. Correspondent in your last number having put, in my mind, a very important question on the subject of prayers for the dead, I will thank you to give room to a few observations in answer to that enquiry.. In the first reformed liturgy of Edward the sixth, revived and improved by those venerable fathers of the church of England, Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer, prayers for the dead are to be found though the figment of purgatory is expressly denied. Many of our soundest Divines since that period have mentioned the lawfulness of the practice, and have acted upon it, as Bishop Andrews, Dr. Hickes, Bishop Bull, Dr. Grabe, Mr. Collier, and others, Dr, Isaac Barrow, Bishop of St. Asaph, and uncle to that profound divine and mathematician the tutor of Newton, ordered a prayer for his soul's rest to be inscribed scribed on his tomb-stone, which occasioned numerous reflections and censures amongst the puritans. Our present liturgy, it must be confessed, is silent upon this subject, which may have been occasioned by the different sentiments imbibed during their exile by the reformers of Queen Elizabeth's reign. In my opinion, however, the expurgation of these prayers from the second reformed liturgy, forms no objection at all to the private use of them, unless it can be proved that our first reformers were wrong in giving them a place. Certainly the practice of praying for the dead is of very antient date, as any one may see who will give himself the trouble of looking into the primitive, liturgies, or even into the best ecclesiastical historians. If indeed the soul departs at once to a state of complete felicity, or to the fixed place of torment, then to pray for its repose would be presumptuous if not sinful. But on the ground that its absolute condition will not be fixed till the last judgment, and that it is now in an intermediate state, prayer on its behalf appears to be an act of Christian charity. Your correspondent approves the practice in general, but questions whether we should pray for those of "our deceased relations whom we know to have died in a state of total forgetfulness of God." I cannot think that we should form such a conclusion respecting any one, except it be of suicides or persons dying notoriously hardened and abandoned: Such doubtless should be left in silent submission to the awful dispensations of the Almighty. But in this exercise of Christian communion I do not think we should exclude all who, according to our opinions and observation, have here been regardless of their duty to God. The heart is known to him alone, and however careless and inconsiderate a person may have lived, yet in the revolution of the mind at death, repentance and faith may have been exercised in a way which no human observer could perceive. Christian charity, here, "hopeth all things" in a peculiar manner, and commendeth the souls of frail and erring brethren to the covenanted -mercies of God in the Redeemer. This forms a distinguishing excellence in the burial office of our church, though it has been peevishly objected to by those who would confine the influence of Christ's satisfaction to a select few in the present life. That article, however, in the Apostle's creed where we state our belief in "the communion of saints" has always struck me as expressing a communion of love and an interchange of good offices between Christians here, and those who are departed hence in the Lord. As they are not yet arrived to the state of supreme felicity, we may safely and profitably commend them personally and generally to the grace and goodness of God through Jesus Christ, humbly praying, as we may suppose they do, for the coming of his kingdom, and for the intermediate refreshment of those who die in the faith and expectation of it. Should these observations find a place in your judicious and reasonable miscellany, they may perhaps be followed by a closer investigation of this subject. I HAVE lately met with an old volume of poems, the productions of FRANCIS QUARLES; a few extracts from |
