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tion, like that of Aaron, it behoves us to be always ready, because we know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.

2nd. Aaron went to die. It is evident, from the sacred narrative, that he well knew for what purpose he was going up the mount when he ascended it to die. How solemn to go to a place, especially when in perfect health both of body and of mind, in order to die there! How affecting! Not only the agonies of dissolution, but also the judgment and eternity were before him when he ascended the hill of death. Then he knew "that he must no more for ever have a portion in any thing that is done beneath the sun." Very few have known what it is thus to die; and very few in such circumstances would be able to ascend the mount of dissolution with a firm step.

3rd. Aaron went up into mount Hor to die. Perhaps this place was selected because retired, and favourable for meditation and prayer. Mountains have been selected for religious exercises, probably on account of possessing these advantages. Passing many recorded facts in the Old Testament, we may notice the Saviour's selection of these places, mentioned in the New. He preached and prayed on mountains; he suffered on mount Calvary, and ascended to heaven from the mount called Olivet. Acts i. 12. May we be favoured with the comforts of retirement, meditation, and prayer, at the time when we are called to depart out of this world.

4th. Aaron went up into the mountain to die in the sight of all the congregation. We are not particularly informed that the people were instructed for what purpose Moses, Aaron, and Eleazer, went up into mount Hor; but it is extremely probable that they knew. Have we any just reason to think, that the Lord's commanding Aaron to die, would be hid from the people? Does it not seem that they did know, seeing that all their eyes were directed towards him? The whole congregation saw him go up to die. What would their feelings then be? This was a final parting, after a long intercourse. He that had ministered to them long in the priests' office, must now minister to them no more. What ravages death has made! But our high priest will never die. Jesus ever liveth to make intercession for us." 5th. Aaron was stripped of his garments on the mount of death. From the order of the sacred narrative, it seems that he was stripped before he died, verse 28. Surely this would be an affecting circumstance to Aaron. These garments were the insignia of his office; in them he had long ministered before the Lord, but now he lays them down to take them up no more; yea, he lays them down that he may answer God for the manner in which he had used them. "Give an account of thy stewardship, for thou mayest no longer be a steward."

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6th. Aaron saw his garments transferred to another on the mount of death. He laid them down, but another took them up. It would doubtless be some encouragement to Aaron, in these circumstances, that he had a son whom the Lord counted worthy to succeed him in the sacred office. Eleazar was a comfort to his father in death. It was not thus, afterwards, with the sons of Eli and Samuel. Evil tidings of his sons, and of the ark of God, caused the death of the former-1 Sam. iv. 12-18; and the sons of the latter were degraded from being judges in Israel, when their father was old, because they perverted judgment. 1 Sam. viii. 1–5. Aaron was favoured; he had support and comfort above many on the day of his death. From Aaron's death we may learn the following lessons:

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1st. That death is a stripping time. It strips all. By it the rich are stripped of their wealth, the poor of their poverty, the high of their dignity, and the low of their degradation; so far as earthly distinctions prevail. At this time the minister will be stripped of his ministering, and the hearer of his hearing, garments. "Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither." Let us often view this stripping time as near. Are we ready for it?

No man 2nd. We may learn, also, that death is a transferring time. can take any thing earthly with him into eternity. At death, Aaron's garments were transferred to another. So will ours. Others will soon occupy our pulpits and our pews, our stations and offices, &c. Let us not act as if what we possess were always to be ours. Let us consider, that one generation riseth up, and another generation passeth away." We must soon make room for others who will come after us.

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3rd. We may also be instructed, that death has no real terrors to a good It frees him from all his troubles; it is the gate of glory; it gathers him to his own people. Hence death is ours. and to be with Christ, which is far better."

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Having a desire to depart

4th. Let us, therefore, prepare for death. We must forsake every sin; we must watch and pray, that we enter not into temptation; we must follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth, that sin may never fix the time or place of our death, and that when the Saviour calls we may be found ready to be gathered to his people, and our people, in the paradise of God, there to be happy for ever. W. CRABTREE. April 7th, 1841.

GENERAL BAPTIST BIOGRAPHY.-1700 To 1770.

No. 5.-JOSEPH MORRIS.

JOSEPH MORRIS, was born at Badbey, near Daventry, Northamptonshire, about the year 1685; but the exact time is not certainly known. His father was a dissenting minister, of the Baptist denomination, in the same county, and one of the messengers of the churches in that neighbour. hood. The son was, in his early years, taken notice of, for his piety and good genius; and having made considerable progress, both in grammarlearning, and academical studies, had a proposal made to him of being sent to one of our Universities for further improvement; but, declining this offer, he was, by some generous patrons, (the family of the Wrights, of Daventry) sent over into Holland, and studied some years at Amsterdam, under the direction of those two famous divines, MR. JOHN LE CLERC, and PHILIP LIMBORCH. But as he chose to make the scriptures the rule of his faith and practice, he no further espoused the sentiments of others, than as they appeared to him consistent with the sacred oracles. He was a very close student, and took in a large compass of knowledge; but his chief care was, to be intimately acquainted with the holy scriptures, for which purpose he gained a considerable skill in the languages in which they were first written, and then applied himself to the study of the originals, and of the learned commentators upon them. This critical knowledge of the scriptures enabled him to defend them against the false and injurious reflections of the enemies of revelation, who often rashly reproach what they never took the pains to understand, or fairly to examine. Of this, he gave some remarkable in

stances, in a judicious volume of sermons, which he published in 1743. His health, and some other circumstances, concurred in preventing him from publishing more, which he had designed.

Mr. Joseph Burroughs, his biographer, states, that he was well read in universal history; and especially that part of it which relates to ecclesiastical affairs. He had likewise carefully perused and considered the "Ancient Apologist for Christianity." By which means he was further qualified to answer the cavils raised against it by its adversaries, both ancient and modern; the latter of whom, often content themselves with little more than barely reviving those objections which have been formerly made, and fully answered. He was likewise well acquainted with the controversies which christians have unhappily raised among themselves; but, although he was a zealous advocate for what he believed to be the truth, he chose rather to employ his ministry in practical discourses, than upon subjects of disputation; and even when engaged in controversy, was careful to lay down the reasons of his own opinion, without those censorious reflections upon any who differed from him, which are too often practised in religious disputes. After his return from Holland, having exercised his ministry for a few years in Northamptonshire, and the neighbouring counties, he went to London, and was, in the year 1724, called and ordained to the pastoral care of the General Baptist Church in Glass-house yard, Goswell Street, in conjunction with the ancient pastor of that church, the Rev. Thos. Kerby, with whom he lived in very great friendship and esteem. But they did not officiate long together, Mr. Kerby being removed by death, in the year 1727, after having, by reason of his very great age, for a considerable time desisted from preaching. Mr. Morris, on this occasion, preached and printed a judicious sermon, from Hebrews, xiii. 7.

Mr. M's. labour in constant preaching, was more than his constitution of body could well bear, and he was attended by other discouragements; yet he persisted in his beloved employments, and showed by his course of action, the sincerity of the profession which he made as a christian, exemplifying by his conduct what he recommended as a minister. He practised the duties of the Christian life upon Christian principles. He particularly excelled in the virtues of humility and patience, and delighted in doing good, after the example of his great Lord and Master. His solid judgment and extensive learning, would, doubtless, have rendered him more conspicuous and regarded, had they not been obscured and concealed by his too great backwardness to show them.

One of the greatest trials which happened to him, and called for patience and submission, was the discouragements and little success which he met with during the course of many years preaching, the preparation for which, discovered great labour and study. This must necessarily occasion no small concern to a mind earnestly desirous of doing good, and of being serviceable to mankind in their highest interest; yet, as he delighted to enter deeply into the subjects on which he treated, and thought himself obliged to set before his hearers the duties and privileges of christians in the plainest light; he went on to the last in that laborious method, leaving the event of his labours to the wise governor and disposer of all things.

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His great delight in doing good appeared in his unwearied labours to procure, and convey, needful supplies to poor ministers in the country, to the widows and orphans of those that were diseased; to obtain proper books for students, as well as exhibitions for their support; and to get re

lief for distressed families. He travelled up and down for such purposes as those, notwithstanding he laboured under a great weakness in his feet, and had, beside, an inward disorder. In works of this kind, he employed himself with a zeal and diligence, which sometimes turned to his own disadvantage; nor did the narrowness of his income prevent his contributing to those charitable purposes which he recommended to his friends. His benevolent heart was in the work, and therefore he willingly bore with straits to carry it on.

He died on the 22nd day of June, 1755, of a complicated disorder, contracted by a great cold. This illness was continued some months, yet he seemed to have some expectation of a recovery; but it pleased God to order it otherwise, to his unspeakable advantage indeed, but with no small loss to the interest of religion and virtue.

Besides the sermon already mentioned, he published a Funeral Sermon on the death of the Rev. Ralph Gould, pastor of a Church in Horslydown, Southwark, preached, Nov. 27, 1722. A collection of his sermons appeared in 1 Vol. Svo., 1743, and after his death another was published, selected from his MSS., with some memoirs of his life, by Joseph Burroughs, in 8vo.. 1757.

Ipswich.

J. R.

REVIEW.

THE DREGS OF THE DRUNKARD'S CUP, &c. A Sermon Preached in the Parish Church of Congerstone, Jan. 24, 1841. By the REV. FRANCIS MINDEN KNOLLIS, A. M., Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, Rector of Congerstone, Leicestershire, &c. To which is prefixed a short address.

THERE is nothing in this sermon which is adapted to give it more than a local interest, in relation either to its subject, or the ability with which it is discussed. We should not have felt warranted in airesting its progress to that speedy oblivion to which all productions of this extremely.common-place order are inevitably destined, had not its author made use of it as a medium of gratuitous and pompous attack on a few quiet, pious, and conscientious dissenters, who reside in his neighbourhood. But as the rector of Congerstone has chosen, in the address prefixed to his "Dregs, &c.,” to step aside with a view to institute grave charges against them, and against all who do not bow to the authority of his Church, he will have no reason to complain if his allegations are examined, and his very lofty pretensions tested by the only infallible guide God has given to mankind. This guide, or rule, we take to be, not councils, or synods, or popes, or prelates, but the Holy Scriptures, being firmly assured of the truth and correctness of the sixth article of the Church of England, to which Mr. Knollis has solemnly subscribed, viz., that "Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation; so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man, that it should be believed as an article of the faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation." By this standard let his own priestly pretensions, the claims of the established hierarchy, and the accusations brought against his "dissenting parishioners," be fairly tried, and we are fully assured, that an impartial verdict will not be honourable to their reverend assailant.

Before we proceed to touch on these questions we may just state, for the information of our readers, what we learn from the pamphlet, viz., that a young man, of extremely intemperate habits, who had resided in the village, "fell a victim to excessive drinking;" and as he was one of the rector's flock, and had once been induced by him ("alas! it was only but once," his "pastor" informs us)" to kneel with the faithful around the table of our dying Lord," a sermon was preached with a view to inculcate the useful lessons his fearful end afforded. That such a per

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son should have been persuaded, even once, thus to "kneel with the faithful," and that before his notorious profanity, and "unrestricted" intemperance had been abandoned, will excite surprise amongst our readers, who will be shocked, rather than affected, with the lament of Mr. Knollis. There was in this once an outrage committed on the religious feelings of such communicants as had any sense of propriety, as well as a manifest violation of that order in the book of common prayer, which directs the curate to caution "an open and notorious evil liver" "in any wise not to presume to come to the Lord's-table until he hath openly declared himself to have truly repented and amended his former naughty life." But our author is an Oxford divine, and a believer in baptismal regeneration, and the efficacy of sacraments; and therefore he ventured, as the Oxford school is now doing on a large scale, to infringe on orders he had solemnly promised to obey, and invited his "departed brother" to communion, doubtless hoping, as he has elegantly told us," that the more often he had received the cup of the Lord, the less inclined he would have been to relish the cup of devils!!"

Personal respect for the young man whose depraved habits brought him to a premature grave, or tenderness towards his surviving relatives, would not have dictated the publication of this sermon, lest it might seem like holding him up to infamy; at least, so it appears to us. Mr. Knollis, apparently, judged or felt otherwise. But it is remarkable, that while the unhappy man is repeatedly denominated "our departed brother," especial care is taken lest the "most noble service for the burial of the dead," which of course was used at his interment, should be misunderstood; and, also, that all real churchmen might have a decisive answer to give to the "ignorant or wicked men," their "adversaries," who except against its terms. Hence we are cautiously told, "our sure and certain hope is not of his or her resurrection whom we bury, but only of the general resurrection to eternal life, which every Christian believes there will be at the last and fearful day;" and "that the Church means no more than this, you may easily prove," Mr. Knollis says, "by turning again to the burial of their dead at sea." Whatever might be the readiness of Mr. Knollis's hearers to turn over the leaves of their prayer book, we are not to be taken out to sea, nor lured from the shore so easily, but shall proceed onwards with our perusal of this "office." We request our readers to do the same, and they will discover, not what proves that "our holy branch of the Catholic Church," as the rector styles it, " was never guilty of such folly and presumption as this," but just the reverse; and that, also, in "expressions as plain as words can make them." "Just open your prayer books to the place," and look over the last two prayers in this "order," and you will find the following words:-"We give Thee hearty thanks, for that it hath pleased Thee to deliver this our brother out of the miseries of this sinful world:" and, again, "We meekly beseech Thee, that when we shall depart this life, we may rest in him, (i. e., Christ,) as our hope is this our brother doth." What can the Rev. Francis Minden Knollis say to this? If his heart be not callous, if his miserable casuistry have not totally obscured his mental perception, surely the blush of shame and confusion covered his face for penning so palpable a misrepresentation, when he afterwards read this prayer over the grave. What are the sentiments of a once well-known and pious Churchman on this service? "Then when we bury them, we dare do no other than send them all to heaven, though many of those we commit to the earth have been as wicked in life as men can well be on this side bell. This is surely a great hardship."

But it is more than time we turned to that section of the "address" which is directed to his "dissenting parishioners;" and that our readers may be induced at once to excuse the length of this article, and save themselves the trouble of obtaining the pamphlet, we will extract the address, premising, that it has been "sent to to every house in the parish ;" and that the rector himself, who is but a young man, has obtruded himself upon his dissenting neighbours,† on former occasions giving utterance to similar sentiments, though not always couched in equally gentle terms.

* Simpson.

+ As is very common with young Oxonians.-ED

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