ship, even among professors of religion, is too often, as it respects spiritual improvement, a chasm in their lives; to which, if they write their history, they refer as to a worthless blank. But it was no blank in the life of MISS BARBERSON. It was very much occupied in solemn prayer for divine direction. I believe that she may, through the mercy of God, in heaven itself look back on that period with great satisfaction, Marriage, in her view, was a serious affair; and none could ever feel more sensibly than she did the responsibility of becoming the wife of a Minister. On the 12th Feb. 1818, she thus writes: "At present an offer is made me to change my situation in life. But O my God, is it a call from thee? Forbid it, that I should take a step of such importance without thy direction and approbation. And although it is from one of thy servants, yet I cannot, I dare not consent, without asking thy guidance. O my FATHER and my God, counsel thy child, and direct me!" Were it not for a fear of prolixity, and of incurring the charge of egotism, I might quote largely from her diary and letters, what would show her spirituality of mind, during this period, in the most interesting manner. She at length consented to the union, which has formed the happiest era in my checkered life. In obtaining her, I certainly obtained "favour of the LORD." On the 18th of June, 1818, she writes in her diary as follows: "On this day I was married. I believe I never felt myself nearer to God than on this important day. My mind was staid on the LORD, and kept in perfect peace." From September, 1818, to February, 1819, we were placed in Jersey. During most of this time, MRS. R. was an acceptable ClassLeader, and a useful Visitor of the Sick. While thus employed, she was not unmindful of the affairs of her family, or of the duties of her closet. Her Diary strikingly evinces, that she walked with GOD in private, and frequently prayed for purity of heart, and to be, according to ST. PAUL'S language, "sanctified wholly." On the 18th of February, 1819, we left Jersey for Guernsey. On our passage we narrowly escaped being driven among some dangerous rocks by a violent storm. A number of French females, on board, alarmed at their perilous situation, rent their clothes, tore their hair, and cried bitterly to the VIRGIN MARY to save our vessel and our lives. MRS. R., though in circumstances which rendered such a situation peculiarly trying, was quite calm and collected. She meekly resigned herself into the hands of the REDEEMER, and said, "she was persuaded that to die would be gain." It pleased God to abate the storm, and send us deliverance. Then, while our Catholic fellowpassengers, overcome with joy, danced, and made the air to resound with their merry but not pious songs, MRS. R. sweetly whispered to me, with a smile, and in tears, "What shall we render unto the LORD for all his benefits?" (To be continued.) THE WICKED DESCRIBED AND WARNED, ON EZEKIEL XXXIII. 7-9: BY THE REV. JOHN FLETCHER, Vicar of Madeley. (Original.) (Concluded from page 158.) 7. WILL you give me leave, my Brethren, to lay before you another mark which shows that the man on whom it is found is certainly "wicked" before God, though in the account of men he may be religious and upright;-I mean no less a sin than that of perjury, which implies, first taking an oath rashly, and then breaking it wickedly. I question whether any thing under heaven can be more solemn than taking an oath, and any thing on this side hell more abominable than falsifying it. And yet what is more common! How many perjured persons do the flaming eyes of Almighty God see throughout the kingdom! "Because of swearing the land mourneth," said a Prophet of old; but had he lived in our degenerate days, he would have added, "because of perjury the land groaneth." To go no farther than that spot which we inhabit;-how many of us, who have been from time to time entrusted with public offices, have wilfully broken the oaths administered unto us; I shall not say in one, but perhaps in a hundred instances? How many open and notorious drunkards, fighters, sabbath-breakers, blasphemers of God's word, cursers of men, and other notorious sinners, have escaped deserved censure, I shall not say by the accidental neglect, but by the downright perjury of officers? And if those that should repress wickedness make no conscience of breaking their oath, that is, of committing themselves the greatest piece of wickedness under heaven, how will they make conscience of repressing lesser abominations in others? Nor does the generality of this atheistical and damnable sin make it more excusable in the sight of God. It would have been no excuse for SATAN, or for the inhabitants of Sodom, to say that they hoped their rebellion was trifling, because thousands of wicked angels, or wicked men, shared in it. And it will be no cloak for the forsworn person to say, "I am not alone," and, "If perjury be a damning sin, God help us all!" The very heathen have punished perjury with death; and how the righteous GOD will punish it in professed Christians, I leave you to infer from these words of the Prophet, "I turned and lift up my eyes," says he, "and behold a flying roll. And he said unto me, What seest thou? And I answered, I see a flying roll; the length whereof is twenty cubits, and the breadth thereof ten cubits. Then said he unto me, This is the curse that goeth forth over the face of the whole earth; for every one that sweareth shall be cut off according to it. I will bring it forth, saith the LORD it shall enter into the house of him that sweareth falsely by my name, and it shall remain in the midst of his house, and shall consume it, with the timber thereof, and the stones thereof." If you want to know what that roll of cursing is, according to which the perjured sinner shall be cut off, I answer, that it includes all the plagues written in the book of God. "So help me GoD," says he who takes an oath; and then he bows and kisses the Bible: that is to say, "Let GoD so truly help me, according to the promises of this book, as I will be true to my oath;" which implies that if he falsify it, he prays that all the lamentations, curses, and woes, written in that book, may fall upon his perjured head: and the angry GoD will answer his horrible prayer, if the perjurer do not speedily repent of his sin, and seek shelter in the wounds of a crucified SAVIOur. 8. For the sake of brevity, I shall crowd into another article many classes of wicked men; as the day would be too short to give you a particular account of their guilt and danger. At the head of these I would put the Hypocrites; they that appear, or try to appear to be godly, out of vain glory, and for private interest, or some selfish and sordid end. These are the very spawn of the crooked Serpent, and, like him, attempt to transform themselves into angels of light, in order more effectually to promote the interests of the kingdom of darkness. From these pests, may God deliver our Church and State! These bring a curse upon us, as ACHAN did upon the Israelites of old. If any such be here, may the dagger of conviction make a wound in their seared consciences, and pierce their callous hearts! Next to these, I would put Enthusiasts; that is to say, those people who dare to talk of the workings of the SPIRIT OF GOD on their minds and hearts, when yet, by their words or works, they show that they are possessed by the spirit of pride and malice, or of covetousness and lust, in short, by the spirit of the Devil. Wherever GOD begins to work, Satan will counterwork; and he does it, often, by dressing up some of his children as Christians, teaching them something of the language of Canaan, and then putting them upon doing the works of darkness, that the children of the world may conclude that all pretenders to the workings of GOD'S SPIRIT are either fools or knaves, mere enthusiasts, and no better than these deceived ones. O let none of us countenance these first-born of Satan let us try to detect them, and turn out the wicked from among us; lest they make spiritual Christians stink for ever in the nostrils of them that are without, and bring a curse upon us and our Church. Next to these, I would place the followers of JUDAS and DEMAS ; -people who make profession of Christianity, come to church, are strict in some points, and regularly receive the bread and cup at the altar. They kiss our SAVIOUR with their lips, as JUDAS; but they hug the bag in their hearts. They call themselves Churchmen, as DEMAS; but they love this present world These "wicked" persons, though they do not pretend to spiritual Christianity, yet because they pretend to Christianity in general, shall have their portion appointed them with hypocrites, unless their hearts be wounded by true repentance, and healed by the balmy blood of the SAVIOUR. In the fourth rank, you may place all the busy Agents of the Devil. And who are these? I answer,-(1.) All lying, envious, spiteful, wrathful, revengeful people :-(2.) All those who speak evil of any one, unless in order to give necessary cautions and useful information to Magistrates, Ministers, and Officers :-(3.) All those that fight, quarrel, or willingly live at variance with any one. The Christian has many enemies; but is himself an enemy to none. If at any time he speaks of the evil that is in his neighbour, it is out of love and compassion, not out of malice or envy. Universal benevolence, a constant disposition to forgive and oblige, to make peace, and to suffer rather than to do wrong, are his peculiar characteristics. But how many are destitute of such characteristics, and yet think and call themselves Christians! Now all these are "wicked" men; and these I called the Devil's Agents; because, as they do his work, so they deserve his name. "Satan," in Hebrew, means an Opposer, and Arabodos, Devil, in Greek, means a Slanderer: because that unhappy spirit delights in opposing and slandering mankind in general, and good men in particular: so that those who oppose and slander their neighbours, and much more those who hurt and persecute them, show plainly what spirit they are of, what master they serve, and what wages they shall have; if, on their reformation and conversion, Divine Mercy do not speedily reverse the sentence gone forth against them. Thus, under the eight foregoing particulars, I have showed you who are the "wicked" that "shall surely die :" and I hope that in which ever class of them your particular case was touched, you have suffered conscience to make the application. II. I now proceed to lay before you such Directions as may, through Divine Mercy, save your precious souls, notwithstanding all this great wickedness,-or, at least, deliver my own. 1. Let us all humble ourselves before Almighty GoD; not transiently, like bulrushes which bend to the storm for an hour, and then return again to their former state; but for all the days of our life. No unhumbled, no stout-hearted sinner, can be in a state of salvation. "Except ye repent," says our SAVIOUR, "ye shall all perish." The unhumbled sinner is, then, in double danger of perishing; first, on account of his sins, and secondly, on account of the stoutness of his heart, which makes his lip-repentance entirely ineffectual. 2. To prove the sincerity of our humiliation and repentance, instead of cloaking and extenuating our manifold sins, let us confess them with deep sorrow, and return to the LORD with mourning and prayer, as well as with fasting; bearing, each of us, the load of our own private iniquities, the additional load of the iniquities of our families, and the immensely accumulated load of the iniquities of our country at large. . 3. Let us meditate, with redoubled sorrow, on all the aggravating circumstances of our sins; for instance, (1.) Let us meditate on their Universality. From the gilded palace to the thatched cottage, our guilt cries to heaven for vengeance ;as if the blood of ABEL were found on the door-posts of almost all the houses in the land! (2.) Let us dwell on the Commonness and Frequency of our sins, which add a prodigious weight to our guilt. They are not sins committed but once in all our life; but they return every year, perhaps every month, or week; and, in too many cases, alas! every day, and every hour,-as often as temptation urges; yea, sometimes, before any temptation solicits. (3.) Let us not conceal a third aggravation of our guilt, still more heinous than the former; I mean, Our having sinned with an uncommon Boldness, and boasted of our sins. Wickedness is become so fashionable, that he who refuses to run with others into vanity, intemperance, or profaneness, is in danger of losing his character, on one hand; while, on the other, the son of Belial prides himself in excesses, glories in diabolical practices, and scoffs with impunity at religion and virtue. O how inconceivably provoking is this in the sight of a holy GOD! (4.) But this is not all. Where have we committed these abominations? Is it in a land of the shadow of death, in some dark, unhappy corner of the earth, where God never manifested himself, either by any choice blessing, or by the light of his Gospel? No! Just the reverse! These scenes of wickedness, profaneness, and vanity, are transacted in the most favoured spot of the universe; in a country where Divine Goodness seems to have endeavoured to soften every heart by showers of temporal and spiritual blessings. O, England ! England !-happy, yet ungrateful island ! Dost thou repay fruitfulness by profaneness,-plenty by vanity,-liberty by impiety,—and the light of Christianity by excesses of immorality? After such aggravations of our guilt, how justly might God have scourged us by those that have risen up in arms against us; how |