the dough to be separated from the dough, after it is once mixed, for it turneth the nature of the dough into itself; so it is impossible for the saints ever to be separated from Christ. For Christ is in the saints, as the leaven is in the dough, so incorporated as that Christ and they are, as it were, one lump. Christ who came to save that which was lost, will never lose that which he hath saved."

not so with us, we cannot do so." | Luther thus remarks-"As it is Monicha answered, "It may be impossible for the leaven that is in when your husband is untoward and perverse, you are perverse again, and give him cross answers; but the christian religion teacheth me otherwise. When my husband comes home, and is in passion, the christian religion teacheth me to be as loving, and dutiful, and amiable to him as I can, so I have gained the heart of my husband." It were a happy thing if all wo 'men would take this home with them, and learn of Monicha, Austin's mother. And so on the other side, the man in reference to his wife. This loving-kindness is between Christ and his church; let it appear between man and wife, when either of them professes their interest in Christ.

HISTORY IMPROVED.

THERE was a worldly man who had a great crop of corn. A good neighbour said to him, You have a very fine crop, if God bless it. Yes, said he, I will have a good erop. This he spoke contemptuously. But before he could get his corn into the barn, the whole crop was blasted, and not worth sixpence. Here we see the uncertainty of created things, at the time when they promise most fair. When the corn is nearly ready for the sickle, or about to be taken into the barn; we must depend on God, as much as when it is under the clods.

O the blessedness of God's servants. They are sure of good for time to come. In the things of Christ, we may promise ourselves certainty, even for the future, but of earthly things we are never sure. Hab. iii. 17, 18.

BURROUGHS.

The faithful love between Damon and Pythias was rare and highly commendable. Yet inferior to that between Jonathan and David. Those were private men, and had nothing perhaps to lose but a contemptible life; but Jonathan lays his life, and the kingdom to which he was heir, both at stake, for the preservation of his

THE union between Christ and his people is too near an union | friend. ever to be broken. Upon this

GREW.

Theological Review.

Memoirs of Eminently Pious Women of the British Empire. A new edition, embellished with eighteen Portraits. Corrected and enlarged by the Rev. SAMUEL BURDER, M. A. 3 vols. 8vo. pp. 1400. £1. 16s. bds.

THis interesting publication originated with the late Dr. Gibbons, a pious and learned minister of the denomination of Independents, the biographer of Watts, and the friend of Johnson.* To his elegant pen we are indebted for that portion of the work which now constitutes the first volume. It made its appearance in 1777, in two volumes, under the sanction of the Doctor's name. In 1804 it was republished, with a few unimportant omissions, when both volumes were comprised in one, and a second volume compiled by the Rev, George Jerment, was added. The work having become so scarce, that it was selling at a very advanced price, the proprietors have now reprinted it, and added greatly to the value of the publication, by the addition of a third volume, larger than either of the others, for which we are indebted to the labours of Mr. S. Burder, author of "Oriental Cus

toms.❞

(widow, of the celebrated S. Pearce of Birmingham)-Lady Ann Erskine -Miss Elizabeth Smith (translator of the book of Job)-Mrs. Esther Bulkley-Miss Mary Stevenson Mrs. Cunningham-Mrs. F. Wilson— Mrs. Isabella Brown-Mrs. Elizabeth Carter-Mrs. Sarah Trimmer-Mrs. E. Cloutt-Mrs. Mary Cooper--Mrs. Mary Genotin-in all twenty-eight lives, which, added to twenty-three in vol. 1. and twenty-six in vol. 2. makes the sum total of seventy-seven articles.

After this concise sketch of the history of the work before us, it will be expected that we say something of the contents of the volumes, and of their external appearance. With regard to the former, it may be remarked that, as in every constellation of luminaries, some will be found to shine with more resplendent lustre, while others present themselves to our vision with a fainter ray, so it is with the work before us. The volumes are exceedingly miscellaneous; and yet, as the object of the biographer has been to present, in the lives and characters of these females, examples of christian piety, and to exhibit the power of religion on the mind, especially in seasons of Presuming that the contents of the sickness, and in the view of death, two former volumes are well known there is nevertheless a considerable to most of our readers, we shall not uniformity pervading the whole. True swell our columns by specifying the religion is substantially the same in names of the females whose bio- all its subjects-it has its origin in graphy is given in them; but the the knowledge of God and ourselves, following list comprises the contents and displays itself in a becoming reof the third. Lady Carbery-Mrs. verence of his divine majesty and Catharine Clarke-Lady Seafield-perfections-in adoring his power, Mrs. Hutchinson (wife of Colonel H. his wisdom, and his goodness, as they Governor of Nottingham Castle) are manifested in the works of creaMrs. Savage Mrs. Catharine Talbot tion and providence-but more espeMrs. Eleanor Dornford-Lady M. cially in a cordial reception of the Stewart Mrs. Arabella Davies - holy Scriptures, as a more full and Mrs. Mary English-Mrs. M. Wedg- explicit revelation of his character, wood (of Burslem in Staffordshire)- and the medium through which he Mrs. Chase, of Luton (written by her has been graciously pleased to make sister, Miss Neale)-Mrs. Thornton himself known to us as "the God of (wife of the late Mr. John Thornton, salvation," the "just God and yet High Street, Borough)-Miss Bacon the Saviour"-adoring the riches of -Mrs. Martha Flight-Mrs. Pearce | his grace, which led him not to spare

*"I took to Dr. Gibbons-I shall be glad to see him. Tell him, if he will call on me, and dawdle over a dish of tea in an afternoon, I shall take it kind."-Boswell's Life of Johnson, vol. iv.

VOL. I.

2 N

say too frequently deprives me of my enjoyment while there. Ichabod, I chabod seems written upon all my former pleasures! But let me no longer sadden you by dwelling upon a subject too interesting to my tenderest feelings ever to be forgotten by me. Nor would I arraign that

right to do what he will. No, my dear friend, I wish to love, adore, and praise,. though I cannot discover his designs, or suppress painful feelings at his dispensations towards me. Oh that I may indeed ́ “know him” in all his ways, and feel my mind more immediately devoted to him thankful, I have not been altogether withand resigned to his will! I desire to be out those consolations which true religion affords." Vol. iii. p. 248.

66

He was

his own Son, but deliver him up to the death of the cross, that we might be rescued from eternal misery-in believing the record he has given of his Son-confiding in his mercyloving him supremely-esteeming his favour our chief good-and un-all-wise and benevolent Being, who has a reservedly devoting ourselves to his fear and service-accounting ourselves to be not our own, but having been bought with the inestimable price of the divine blood of the Saviour, as laid under the highest obligations to glorify him with our bodies and spirits, which are his. As it has been the primary object of the biographer throughout, to exhibit something of this in every character, so it necessarily forms the After an illness of a few days, prominent feature of the work be- it hath pleased the great Arbiter of life fore us-and the lives are conse- boy, aged one year and six months; and and death to bereave me of my dear little quently condensed or amplified in thus again to convince me of the uncerproportion as they afforded materials tainty of all earthly joys, and bring to for exhibiting this trait of character. remembrance my past sorrows. Our readers must be well aware in my fond eyes one of the fairest flowers how easy it would be for us to fill human nature ever exhibited; but ab, he our columns with most interesting is dropt at an early period! Yet the hope extracts from these volumes. That of his being transplanted into a more saluindeed might be done month after tary clime, there to rebloom in everlasting month, and after all the greater por-lived, he had unavoidably been exposed vigour: and the reflection, that if he had tion would be left unexplored. We to innumerabie temptations, from which, must, therefore, forego this pleasure, if my life were spared, I should yet be gratifying as it would be to us, and unable to screen him, make me still. we have no doubt to our readers Though I feel as a parent, and I hope as also. The lives are not all equally a Christian, yet I can resign him. Ob, interesting, at least to us; but this is could I feel but half the resignation rewholly a matter of opinion and taste, specting the loss of my beloved Pearce! for it will do doubt happen, that the deep wound; and a return to Birming But I cannot. Still bleeds the deep, Memoir which we may think insipid, ham is a return to the most poignant will strike another reader with ad- feelings. I wish, however, to resign him miration. With many of them we to the hand that gave, and that had have been greatly pleased, and per- an unquestionable right to take away. haps with none of them more than Be still then every tumultuous passion, that of the late Mrs. Pearce of Bir- and know, that he who hath inflicted mingham. Mr. Burder has presented these repeated strokes, is GOD; that God us with several of her letters, some whom I desire to reverence under every of them written shortly after the what I know not now, I shall know herepainful dispensation, being persuaded that decease of her amiable husband, and after." Vol. iii. p. 249. they shew her to have been an extraordinary woman We cannot resist the pleasure of presenting our readers with the two which follow.

In vain, alas! in vain I seek him whose presence gave a zest to every enjoyment! I wander about the house as one bereft of her better half. I go into the study-I say to myself; There is the chair he occupied, there are the books he read; but where, oh where is the owner? I come into the parlour-there my tenderest feelings are awakened by four fatherless children. The loss of him with whom I have been accustomed to go up to the house of God diminishes, ah, I may

The letter which follows these in the volume before us, is, if possible, still more affecting than either of them, but it is too long for insertion. This amiable woman died in May 1804, having survived her husband little more than four years.

The account of Mrs. Elizabeth Carter has, we believe, been somewhere previously given, but we were well pleased to meet with it again in this publication; and in perusing the selections which the editor has made from her writings, we really felt

at a loss which most to admire, the grandeur of the sentiment, or the dignified tone in which it is express ed.. Let the reader, if he pleases, try his own ingenuity, or the following passages taken at random.

"To consider the gospel merely as a subject of speculation, which we are at liberty to examine or let alone just as our other avocations will allow, is not having such a sense of its awful importance as gives room to expect any satisfaction from the inquiry. To examine it more diligently, and more in earnest, yet entirely with a confidence in our own understanding, is not having a proper sense of human weakness. Religion is a most solemn transaction between God and the soul, founded on every relation

in which we stand to him; and it is only by keeping up a perpetual intercourse with him, and by an endeavour to form not only our outward behaviour, but the whole internal frame of our mind, with a reference to his approbation, that we can become sufficiently divested of all wrong tendencies, to be duly qualified to judge of the truth of any revelation proposed in

his name."

"Did the great truths of Christianity engage our attention with the same force as those which concern the objects of our interest, and of our attention to the commerce of the world, we should, without hesitation, think it reasonable to admit them upon the same principles; but we are too apt to consider religion as something external, and merely a subject of speculative curiosity, on which we are at liberty to play all the tricks of our understanding, in a manner which would strike us as an instance of the highest absurdity, if it was applied to the common affairs of life. The difference which we make in the two cases arises only from our own prejudices, for the Supreme Being deals with us alike in both; that is, in exact conformity with the nature he has given us, which is that of reasonable creatures, whose assent is to be determined by reasonable arguments, and not to be kept in eternal suspense by refusing to admit the most probable side of a question, only because it cannot solve all the difficulties with which every question, to every understanding below omniscience, must be attended."

"To all who believe the gospel it must give an inexpressible delight, that those sentiments of affection to which we owe

ing his concern for a parent, and his confidence in a friend.

"There is no doubt but he, who had so often made use of a miraculous interposition in other cases, might have made use of the same instrument to render all mortal care unnecessary. But the exertions of his power as the Son of God, could not have afforded so much use and consolation to his followers, as his giving in every possible instance an example of the virtues of the Son of man." Vol. iii. P. 399, 400, 401.

"This learned and excellent lady," (we quote the words of Mr. Malone, in Boswell's Life of Johnson, vol. v. p. 155.) "died at her house in Clarges street, Feb. 19, 1806, in her 89th year." Johnson might well say of her, as Mr. Boswell tells us he did, “I dined yesterday with Mrs. Carter, Miss Hannah More, and Miss Burney -three such women are not to be found; I know not where I could find a fourth.” Boswell's Life, &c. vol. v. p. 155.

We must return thanks to Mr. Burder for rectifying a mistake under which we have laboured for years, respecting the character of the late Mrs. Trimmer. It is beyond our power to account for it, but the impression had been strong upon our mind, that in regard to doctrinal sentiment, she classed with the Socinians! and hence it excited no little surprise in us to find her name here enrolled in the list of female worthies. But turning to the Memoir, and reading such passages as the following, we soon found out our mistake.

"O Lord, I confess myself a sinner; alas! my sins and offences are innumerable, and I am not worthy to address thy divine Majesty, but through the mediation of my blessed Redeemer, thy only Son Jesus Christ; for his sake I beseech thee pardon all my past offences, and receive me into thy favour."-"I know that with out holiness I can never enter heaven; and I feel that I am a sinner unworthy, from my manifold offences, of admittance there; but my Redeemer has made atonement for sin, and thou, O God, hast promised to pardon all who shall truly repent, and for his sake to receive them to thyself as dear children.”

The publishers have given excellent portraits of Mrs. Carter and Mrs. Trimmer, both engraved by Hopwood.

our most exquisite pleasure, were sanctified by many instances in the history of Him, whose whole conduct is proposed for our unerring example: who, amidst the sufferings of a violent and painful death, felt all the tenderest sensibilities of social love, and employed some of the latest moments of expiring life in express-pieces of biography, which display

The Memoirs of Mrs. Cunningham, and Mrs. Frances Wilson, two ladies of North Britain, are extended