to afcribe to him freely and cheerfully all those attributes which compofe his moft adorable name. It is cheerfully to place him on the throne as the fole governor of the world, whose will is his only law, and whofe unquestionable right it is to do his pleasure in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, difpofing of all creatures and events as feems good in his fight. It is to give up the reins of govern ment entirely into his hands, and to acquiefce with perpetual fatisfaction and gladnefs of foul in his fupreme and unfruftrable dominion. It is to admit our entire dependence upon him, to fubfcribe to the rectitude of his law and to the righteousness of its fentence. It is to allow freely that we are as great finners, and deserve as great a punishment as he has informed us. It is to admit unrefervedly that he is right, and that we are wrong, wholly and entirely, with refpect to that controverfy we have maintained with him, and therefore to give ourselves up into his hands to be faved by his mere grace if we are saved at all. This is but acting according to the dictates of the most evident propriety and truth. To treat God thus, to glorify him as God, and to make him the fupreme good, is but to treat him in equity. After we have done this we are but unprofitable fervants, doing no more than it was our duty to do. If we come short of this, if we deny to God his attributes, his decrees, his fovereignty, his authority, his right of abfolute dominion, his claim to our perfect cordial fubjection, if we justify ourselves and condemn him, we cannot be the liberal; for with refpect to him, the first and infinitely the greatest object of regard, we do not devife liberal things. [To be continued.] A REFLECTIONS ON AUTUMN. THOUSAND circumstances fhow us the flight of time. The varying feafons are fo many monuments to remind us how rapidly it is paffing away. They inform us of its departure, yet give it apparently a much longer exiftence. The different feafons are fo many points or divifions from which we take our departure anew. That feafon, which in fome refpects is the moft gloomy in the year, is now arrived. The bluftering winds, the increasing cold, the leaves of the foreft, flying in every direction, broken limbs, and fallen trees, the death of vegetation, and driving ftorms, tell me in melancholy ftyle that Autumn has come. Labour has carried her feythe and her fickle from the field, the warbling fongs of the groves are filent, the ox and the lamb afk afk their food from man, children no longer play in the street, amufement and hilarity encircle the focial fire. Gone are the flowers of fpring, and the herbage of fummer; the garden is defolate, and the apple has fallen from the tree. Where is the fprightlinefs of the vernal morn, where the butle and business of the fummer's day? Gone, gone; by many to be feen no more. No more will they hear the fong of the lark, nor the cooing of the dove; no more will they fee the rofe in the garden, nor the corn in the field. They have seen their last spring, and their last summer. Is there not an autumn in the life of man? How many can fay: "My head is fprinkled with white as the ground with froft, my hairs are falling like leaves from the tree. I have had my spring of pleasure, my fummer of labour. They are gone, gone with their various charms, never to be enjoyed again. Not only thofe amufements that once engaged my warmest affections, yet trifling or criminal in their nature; but other comforts deemed more rational and more permanent, which I trusted would cheer or fupport me through life, have deferted me one after another in fad fucceffion. My parents, who protected me in danger, who fupplied my wants, who werethe folace of my life, I have followed to the house appointed for all living. Some of my children, who were the delight of my heart, who flept in my bofom, on whom I leaned as the ftaff of my age, have been torn from me by the cruel destroyer; they reft in the narrow houfe of death. My kind brother, my tender fifter, I watched in their last moments. The laft word, the last anxious gaze, the last gafp of life is ftill present to my fad remembrance. The fcene was dreadful, the diftrefs overwhelming, the anguifh of my foul infupportable. I had a friend, who feemed nearer than a brother. He was guilty; my heart bled; I fhed tears in fecret places; with devotion in my heart, I rebuked him with my tongue, and he has become my enemy. I once fondly hoped to render important fervices to mankind, but the hope is now loft. I received a stranger into my houfe, and he robbed me. I treated him as a father, and he destroyed my dearest treafure, the reputation of my family. I gave charity to a poor man, and he reproached me for not giving more. I fpoke comfortably to the afflicted, and they fighed more bitterly; their complaints were more difmal. I gave inftruction to benighted wanderers, and they rushed on more violently in their guilty courfe. I entreated backfliders to return, and their hatred was terrible. I warned, I threaten, ed the careless and secure with the wrath of God, and the found of their viol continued through the night. "Years have chilled the ardour of my fpirit; the vigour of health fails; the malignity of disease begins to prey on my vi tal guilt I doubt not is great. That of every finner is fo. It is fo great, that you have yet, notwithstanding all your complaints, but very inadequate conceptions of it. You are concerned too with a Being of unbounded purity and glory. But bleffed forever be the name of God, when we approach him, we approach a gracious, a forgiving, as well as a fearful God: a God who will not reject the prayer of the humble. O, my Julia, pray and faint not. Fly into the arms of this best of beings. Go to him as your father. Go with the powerful argument of your guilt. It is the beft you can use. Abide under his fhadow. It is heaven. Bleffed are all they who truft in him. Adieu. (To be continued.) FOR THE MASSACHUSETTS M. MAGAZINE. REMARKS ON SILENUS. S a minister of the gofpel, I have received it in folemn A charge to watch for fouls, as one who muft give account. One important branch of duty, which this charge has devolved upon me, is, to vifit the fick and the dying, and afford them fuch inftruction as their circumstances appear to require. As I was lately meditating on this fubject, I was led to inquire, what must be the proper method of treating one, who, on the borders of the grave, and eternity, expreffes a strong confidence, that he is prepared for the folemn fcenes before him; but who, however, appears to me to be in the gall of bitterness, and bond of iniquity, and in the most imminent danger of everlasting deftruction. After attending to the subject, for fome time, I came to this conclufion, that, in fuch a cafe, it must be duty, with tenderness, but with great plainnefs, to fuggeft my fears, and the grounds of them; to point out the loft fituation of man, by nature; clearly to ftate the neceffity, the nature, and the effects of regeneration; to hold up to view the diftinguishing characteristics of a Chriftian character; to dwell on the danger of being fatally deceived; and to urge it upon the fuppofed fubject of delufion, to examine with diligence, with care, and with fervent prayers for divine direction, whether he were indeed a child of God, and an heir of glory. Having come to this conclufion, I took up the 7th number of your Magazine, and, opening at the 160th page, I caft my eye on the following reflection: "How delufive and dangerous the opiate, which minif ters ters often adminifter to their people, when, without any difcriminating remarks, they call upon them at large to examine whether they are the friends of God!" I read the paffage again, and again; and then perused the whole effay. On examination, I found this reflection was made in view of this idea, which Silenus, the writer, had laboured to establish, viz. That " felfexamination is not the duty of any unrenewed finner." It was natural to reflect, if this be fo, then I have come to a very erroneous conclufion, on the fubject, which I have been contemplating; and, alas, I am one of thofe preachers, who have often administered this "delufive and dangerous opiate." This led me to review the fubject. But, after the most deliberate and careful attention, I could discover no reason for altering my opinion. Senfible, however, that, in this cafe, I am liable to be influenced by prejudice, and defiring to be fet right, if indeed I am wrong, I determined to forward this account, with the fubfequent remarks on the Effay of Silenus, for infertion in your Magazine. It is obvious, that the opinion of Silenus, in view of which he dealt fo heavy a blow upon my head, and upon the head of other ministers of the gospel, is fupported by these two arguments, and by thefe only; viz. 1. That felf-examination is needlefs, and useless, to all unrenewed finners. And 2. That no time is allowed them, for fuch an employment. It may be useful to expose the fallacy of these arguments, and to fhow, that self-examination may be an immediate duty, and a duty of much importance, to the unrenewed finner. The ground on which Silenus obviously refts his firft argument, is this, that the fole object of felf-examination is, to afcertain whether one is a Chriftian; and that an unrenewed finner may know, that he is not a friend, but an enemy of God, without fuch examination. Hence it is, that he concludes, that self-examination is needlefs. This appears, from the cafes of the rebellious child, and the blind man, to which he refers for an illuftration of his idea. To fet afide this argument, it may be obferved, that it is not true, that the fole object of felf-examination is to ascertain, whether one is a Chriftian; but that, however, were this admitted, it would not follow, that felf-examination is needlefs, for all unrenewed finners. Every one, at all acquainted with mankind, muft certainly know, that they are extremely apt to deceive themselves, with refpect to their real characters. Though they are generally convinced, that'they are finners, they are far from being convinced, and it is exceedingly difficult to convince them, that they are as guilty and as vile as they really are. Almost all men are deceiving themselves, in this refpect; and it must be acknowledged, that it is vaftly important, that they fhould know themselves. themselves. And how are they to be undeceived? Certainly, by having their attention fixed on the truth. But, how can this be effected, but by leading them to ferious and careful felf-examination? Surely, not at all. They never will be convinced, in any other way. And, until they are convinced, it is not to be expected, that they will take that place in the duft, which belongs unto them. This, therefore, must be a leading object, with every faithful preacher, to hold up to the view of men their real character, and to lead them to examine, whether this character belongs to them. Indeed, whether they fay any thing about felf-examination, or not, juft fo far as they exhibit, and apply the truth, they do what naturally urges them on to fuch examination, and affifts them in it. This is the way, in which the words of the wife prove as goads. It is believed, moreover, that the way, in which the Spirit of God convinces men of fin, is, by leading them to examine the ftate of their own hearts, and fhowing them to themselves. If more direct fcripture teftimony is wanted, in proof of the idea, that it is duty for finners immediately to examine, and for ministers to urge this upon them, let these two paffages be duly confidered. Confider your ways. Let us fearch and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord. If Silenus is capable of writing a fermon, upon either of these paffages, without urging upon finners the duty of felf-examination, it must be confeffed he has confiderable ingenuity. But, were it true, that the only object of felf-examination is, to ascertain whether one is a Chriftian, ftill it would be an immediate duty, of vast importance, to fome unrenewed finners. Some fuch finners are deceived, and really believe, that they are friends of God. This is evident from scripture, and from what is frequently taking place among ourselves. We often fee perfons, who have evidently nothing of the fpirit of the gospel, indulging a vain confidence, that they are the favourite children of God. Indeed Silenus, in attempting to point out what fuch a man muft do, has virtually acknowledged, that there are fuch men, Now, is it not of infinite importance to fuch perfons, that they fhould be undeceived? They are walking, blind-fold, directly to the edge of a precipice, and will they not inevitably fall and perifh, unless the bandage be removed from their eyes? But, how is this to be effected? Certainly, by leading them to examine themselves. Unlefs they can be prevailed on to do this, they will never be undeceived, until their eyes are opened in hell. Indeed, fo far as felf-examination has for its object, to afcertain whether we are Chriftians, the duty refts entirely on this ground: It is poffible, and there is reafon to fear, that we are not Chriftians. For, if any perfon knows certainly, that he is a Chriftian, he has no occafion for examining, with a |