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A PROFITABLE METHOD

OF READING THE SCRIPTURES.

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Extracted from the Diary of a pious deceased Christian.

THE method of reading the Sacred Scriptures which is here presented to our friends, was, for a long course of years, practised by an eminent private Christian, who so far profited by it, as both to know and to do the will of Christ in a most exemplary manner.

He had spent several years in company with a man of quality and fortune, who resided near him in the country, and by whose example he had been betrayed into several fashionable vices; and by his influence he was led into many of those follies, to which idleness and fulness of bread expose vain and thoughtless men.

The lady of his gay friend was a woman of genuine piety: Providence took her away. The circumstance so affected him, that he wrote to her husband as follows:

" SIR,

"IT has pleased God to take away your excellent lady : had he done the same to you or me, I very much fear that we should not have been able to give so good an account of ourselves as she. You may do as you please; for my own part, I think I have played the fool long enough, and, alas! too long! I do now resolve, by God's grace, to become another man than I have hitherto been.

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He was, for a considerable time, supposed to be in a melancholy madness. But this was the mistake of those who had not yet felt the evil of sin. His sorrow was a godly sorrow, that worketh repentance. By earnest prayer, and attentive reading of the Scriptures, he saw the way of salvation, and found peace: his sorrow gave way to joy unspeakable and glorious. He persevered in that faith which purifieth the heart, and worketh, all obedience, by love. He died, aged 57, full of consolation.

As the method which he pursued in attending to the word of truth was plain and practical, and such as any Christian can follow, we with pleasure give a few specimens of it, and earnestly recommend its practice.

MATTHEW, XVIII.
Hence I learn,

1. To be teachable, humble, and harmless, v. 3, 4.

2. To shew my love to Christ by kindness to my fellow Christians, v.5.

3. Not to offend any one, v. 6.

4. To undergo any extremities for the good of my soul, v. 7. To seek the salvation of others, v. 11, 12.

5.

6. To rejoice at the salvation of sinners, v. 13.

7. To tell my offending brother of his fault in private; if this do not reclaim him, then before one or two of the brethren; if he hear not them, then tell it to the church; if he still continue obstinate, count him as a heathen, v. 15.

S. To believe that Christ is present in the assemblies of the church,

V. 20.

22.

9. To forgive my offending brother as oft as he repenteth, v. 21,

10. To be merciful to my debtors, v. 23.

MATTHEW, XXIII.

Hence I learn,

1. To obey my civil governors in all lawful things, v. 2, 3.
2. Not to make a shew of religion to get praise of men, v. 5.

3. Not to be proud or ambitious, v.

6, 7.

4. To own God and Christ only for my supreme Father and master,

v. 6, 7.

5. To be humble, even in the highest stations, v. 11.

6. To promote godliness both in myself and others, v. 13.

7. Not to colour base purposes with pretences of religion, v. 14. S. Not to swear by any of God's creatures, v. 16.

of my

9. Not to rest in the observance of one, and that the least, part duty, but to do the whole, and the chief parts of it in the first place,

V.23.

10. Not to be scrupulous about small matters, and make no conscience

of greater, v. 24.

11. To be as good in reality as I appear to be, v. 25.

12. Not to partake in other men's sins, v. 30.

13. Not to ruin myself, seeing God would save me, v. 37.

We have given the above examples promiscuously, only as a sample, not as having any thing peculiar, but to shew the manner in which he read, and to encourage others to the same. We will subjoin another instance.

HEBREWS, XIII.
Hence I learn,

1. To maintain brotherly love, v. 1.

2. To be hospitable to forlorn strangers, V. Z.

VOL. IV.

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3. To commiserate them who are in prison, and in any adversity,

v. 3.

4. To honour marriage, v. 4.

5. To avoid fornication and adultery, v. 4.

6. Not to be covetous, but be content with my condition, v. 5.

7. To rely upon God, and not to fear man, v. 6.

8. To reverence the officers of the church, v. 7.

9. To be stedfast in all divine truth, and not to place religion in outward things, v. 9.

10. To bear the reproach of Christ, v. 13.

II. Not to make this world my home, but to seek the heavenly Jerusalem, v. 14.

12. To live in daily praise and thanksgiving to God, v. 15.

13. To do good and to communicate to the necessitous, v. 16.

14. To obey my spiritual rulers, and to pray for Christ's ministers, v. 17, 18.

15. To keep a good conscience and live honestly, v. 18.

16. To pray that 1 may be perfect in every good work, v. 21. 17. To do the will of God in all things, v. 21.

Any industrious Christian, who reads the Bible carefully, may improve upon this method. One chapter a day thus dissected, would afford matter for daily meditation, and would, in process of time, make a person a scribe well instructed in the kingdom of God.

DISSERTATION ON DREAMS.

"He that hath a dream, let him tell a dream," Jer. xxiii. 28.

DREAMS are all those thoughts which people feel passing through

their minds, and those imaginary transactions in which they often fancy themselves engaged, when in the state of sleep.

In dreaming we are not conscious of being asleep. This is well known from many circumstances. When awake, we often recollect our dreams; and we remember, on such occasions, that while those' dreams were passing through our minds, it never occurred to us that we were separated by sleep from the active world. We are often observed to act and talk in dreamiug, as if we were busily engaged in the intercourse of social life.

One Scripture says, “In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, in slumberings upon the bed, then God openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their instruction." Job, xxxiii. 15, 16. This passage seems to favour our observance of dreams.There are many instances in the Old Testament which prove dreams to

have been monitory, consolatory, instructive, or terrifying; and even some also in the New Testament. Some indeed were of a prohetic nature, as that of Abraham, Gen. xv. 12. We do not mean to treat of these; but of our common dreams. The subject ought to be spoken of with caution, for the wise man says, 66 In the multitude of dreams both vanities and words are multiplied; but fear thou God." Eccles. v. 7. From this comparison of Scriptures, we may infer there is both an use, and an abuse of dreams. Some persons are so superstitious as to make their dreams a constant rule of action. Others totally disregard all dreams, however impressive, and laugh at those who pay the smallest respect to them. Betwixt these extremes there is a medium, which wisdom will adopt and act accordingly.

The great Mr. Locke, and after him many others, have supposed that some people never dream. It is a fact much more demonstrable that most people do frequently dream in their sleep. How is it possible for any to remember, and be certain that they did not dream? It is more likely that they forgot what they have dreaunt of. I doubt if there be a man living but what does sometimes dream in his sleep; and it will be granted by my readers that a great part of mankind dream all their life long, both sleeping and waking.

Whether there be any proof of the materiality or immateriality of the soul arising from the subject of dreams, has been much disputed, and many considerable writers have taken different sides of the question. Many dreams may be traced to a certain source: the concerns of the day often engage the mind in our sleeping hours: and of this the wise man takes notice," a dream cometh through the multitude of business," says he. When the mind and body are both faigued, and we lay down to rest, our sleep is often filled with the images of things with which we have been conversant in the day; but it is not often that they arise in any regular succession, or continue long in any connected order. They are generally wild, irregular, unconnected, and fantastical. It would be folly itself to pay any serious regard to this class of dreams.

However vague dreams of business are in general, yet when they are regular, clear, and relate to business not yet executed, they are not always to be totally slighted: I have known very sensible persons who have declared that they have received a convincing idea how to proceed in some difficult piece of mechanism in a dream, or how to accomplish some weighty transaction in life,

Persons with weak nerves, and especially such as have had their bodily frame severely shattered by acute disorders, are very subject to dream. In such cases dreams are of a mixed and extravagant nature, things past, present, and to come are oddly jumbled together. Sometimes all the terrible calamities of life, and all the horrible and fearful descriptions of hell, which the piety or folly of men have invented, are united in strange and awful confusion to perplex and terrify the feeble soul.

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"If they but close their eyes to sleep, tis all confusion!
Strange images arise in thousand forms and thousand colours ;
Stars, rainbows, moons, green dragons, bears and ghosts,

An endless medley, rush upon the stage

And dance and riot above controul."

Something of this kind holy Job complains of. "When I say My bed shall comfort me, my couch shall ease my complaint, thou scarest me with dreams, and terrifiest me through visions." The unhappy persons who are in this case, not unfrequently judge wrong of their own condition, and think that to be their sin, which is only their affliction; and also are often objects of derison and contempt to such as are of firmer nerves and stronger health. Thus he that is ready to slip with his feet is as a lamp despised by him that is at ease."

Some persons are naturally of a gay and airy temper; they know little of any pressure of mind, unless, indeed, some heavy affliction, or calamity of long continuance be upon them, they know not what it is to sigh. Their dreams are frequently similar to their general temper. They skim along the surface of the earth with velocity; they mount a fiery steed, and outstrip the wind; or they take their flight through the middle air unembarrassed with the weight of heavy limbs, and see men, and beasts, and houses, towers, and steeples beneath them.

Others, perhaps, of a more phlegmatic disposition, descend, in dream, beneath the flood, and walk at the bottom of the great deep. They traverse the hills and dales of the ocean, and explore the unknown caverns of the watery world. They see, and perhaps in fancy acquire, the vast treasures that have long been accumulating there; or they contemplate the wreck of rich merchant ships laden with the productions of the east, which the raging storm has dashed against the rocks, or the sudden and tremendous squall has buried beneath the waves. They behold the remains of proud navies, once the terror of the distant shore; but now dismasted, torn with the boisterous winds, or pierced with the deathful ball from the destructive and loud mouthed cannon, they lie in grand but awful confusion beneath the waters. The dreamer views the sad spectacle, made more affecting by the thousand human skeletons or half caten carcasses of the thoughtless but hardy warriors who dealt death to each other in their fury. Filled with astonishment and grief, the visionary mortal feels the blood chill in his veins, when some unforined monster, or dragon of the deep, opens his horrid mouth to destroy him: he immerges from beneath the briny surface, and wakes with satisfaction and joy.

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The voluptuous man also has his dreams. When awake, he is, as the the scripture expresses, a son of Belial," a lawless one. No restraint, human or divine, can bind him to the practice of virtue. He says to his companions Come," let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us." We will have the harp and the viol, the tabret and thepipe; wine and women shall crown our feasts: we will wear the wreath of rosebuds and jessamin, aud our soul shall know no sorrow. He continues at the banquet till wine înflames him, he spends his nights in revelry. When the morning approaches he sinks upon the bed of sloth, and his sensual fancy again repeats the nameless excesses of his waking hours; but he is not totally at peace. Some unhappy female whose virtue he has ruined, and whom his lust and treachery have brought

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