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least, to the end of the chapter, the same afflictions are the burden of his matter. And this applies doubly, of course, to the Calvinistic version, which would represent St. Paul as abruptly forsaking at once all his former subject, to bring forward an irrelevant declaration of God's arbitrary decree regarding certain individuals, here suddenly introduced simply as those whom for his own good pleasure he has irrespectively forechosen, and who, therefore, (such being the ultima ratio-the one primary and only moving cause with the Calvinist,) must be persons very different from those throughout before spoken of conditionally, as to be perfected through suffering, and blessed with means, and so rewarded, finally, according to their conduct thereunder. More satisfactory seems the meaning assigned by Dr. Nott, (Ordination Sermon, 1812, p. 53, Notes,) and which he attributes to Chrysostom : As the Son entered not into his kingdom but through suffering, even so those chosen in him should not enter into glory but by conforming to his image in suffering;" "for," says he, "the predestination spoken of is mentioned, not as forming a main argument, but as a subsidiary motive for consolation to christian converts not to faint under persecution." "The elect were predestinated to suffer for the approval of their faith, (ch. v. 3, 4,) and not the elect were predestinated to be elected for the reception of faith." The verses, then, might be thus understood: "For whom he did foreknow would thus love him,* when called and invited into his church, those hath he long ago himself predetermined should be made to resemble his Son, and walk in his footsteps, with him to suffer here, if with him they would reign hereafter, that so he might be the firstborn among many brethren. (2 Cor. iv. 10. Colos. i. 24. Phil. iii. 10-21. 2 Tim. ii. 12; and iii. 12. Acts xiv. 22. 1 Thess. iii. 3. 1 Pet. ii. 20, 21; and iv. 12, 13; and v. 9, 10. Heb. ii. 9-12.) And whom he had thus appointed to present trials, these also for their comfort and encouragement hath he also called to his church and favour; and not called only, but, on their hearkening to his voice, justified, (chap. v. 1, 2; 1 Cor. vi. 11; on their baptismal admission,) and made partakers of that present sonship and honour, which shall hereafter be more completely developed into everlasting triumph and glory;" (vers. 18, 23, 24. John xvii. 22. Eph. ii. 5, 6. 2 Cor. iii. 7, 11, 18. 1 Pet. iv. 14. 1 Thess. ii. 12); thus showing the converts at Rome that their very afflictions themselves were a part of his divine dispensations for the exercise of his people, and would, if received properly, tend to their improvement and increase of reward. Erasmus, whose paraphrase was ordered by authority to be set up in our churches in the reign of Edward VI. as a proper guide for the people, (Grant's Hist. of the English Church, vol. ii. p. 365, and Heylin, Quinquarticular Hist. chap. viii. sec. 3), thus takes a middle course :-" Nor ought we to feare leste they beyng overcome through the weightiness of outragious persecution, utterly fal from hym, since we know this for most certayne, that whatsoever affliccion chaunce unto devoute and godly people, al the same shal be for the best. Suche is God's favor towardes them,

"Hi ergo secundum propositum vocantur, quos credentes præscivit Deus futuros sibi idoneos, ut antequam crederent scirentur. Istos quos præscivit sibi devotos, ipsos elegit ad promissa præmia capienda.”—Comment. in Ambrose, whether his or Hilary the Deacon's.

whom he hath of purpose chosen out, and called to this welthy life. Endevour must we, and do what in us lyeth, but thende of all hangeth of God's ordinaunce; God, without counsel, or unadvisedly, choseth none, but wel knoweth all such as are his long before he cal them. And not only knoweth them whom he calleth, but had also, even at the same tyme, surely purposed with himselfe to graffe and plante them into the bodye of his sonne Jesus; yea, and to transfourme them lykewyse into the lykeness and shape of hym, whiche overcomyng the fleshe and death, triumphantly went to immortalitie: both to teache that al the members of his bodye should themself loke to have the same, which they see alreadie done in the head, that by this waye and meanes, through his only Sonne, he myght to hymselfe great manye chyldren, amonge whome Jesus Christe should be head and capitayne, and as the Firste Begotten, departyng yet his inheritaunce with other," &c. &c.-Edit. London, 1549. And see Chrysostom's Homily in loco. Ενταῦθα μοι δοκεῖ πρὸς τοῦς ἐν κινδύνοις ὄντας ἅπαν τοῦτο κεκινηκέναι τὸ Xwpiov, K. T. Y.; neither of which, however, nor Dr. Nott's rendering, do I pretend implicitly to claim for the paraphrase above given.-Eldes runs ὄγκον ; ὅπερ γὰρ ὁ μονογενὴς ἦν φύσει, τοῦτο καὶ αὐτὸς γεγόνασι κατὰ χάριν, κ. τ. λ.Ib, on v. 29, 30, ἐδικαίωσε διὰ τῆς τοῦ λουτροῦ παλιγγε νεσίας ; ἐδόξασε διὰ τῆς χάριτος, διὰ τῆς υἱοθέσιας.

E. B.

GOOD NIGHT.

WHEN thou hast spent the ling'ring day
In pleasure and delight,

Or after toyle and wearie waye,

Dost seeke to rest at nighte:

Unto thy paynes or pleasures past,

Adde this one labour yet,

Ere sleepe close vp thyne eye to fast,
Do not thy God forget,

But searche within thy secret thought,
What deeds did thee befal:
And if thou find amisse in ought,
To God for mercy call.

Yea though thou find nothing amisse,
Which thou canst cal to mind,

Yet euer more remember this,
There is the more behind :

And thinke how well so euer it be,
That thou hast spent the daye,
It came of God, and not of thee,
So to direct thy waye.

Thus if thou trie thy dayly deedes,

And pleasure in this payne,

Thy life shall clense thy corne from weeds,

And thine shal be the gaine:

But if thy sinfull sluggishe eye,
Will venter for to winke,
Before thy wading will may trye,

How far thy soule may sinke,
Beware and wake, for else thy bed,
Which soft and smoth is made,
May heape more harm vpon thy head,
Than blowes of enmies blade.

Thus if this paine procure thine ease,
In bed as thou doest lye,

Perhaps it shall not God displease,
To sing thus soberly;

I see that sleepe is lent me here,
To ease my wearye bones,
As death at last shall eke appeere,
To ease my greeuous grones.

The stretching armes, the yauning breath
Which I to bedward vse,

Are patternes of the pangs of death,

When life will me refuse:

And of my bed eche sundrye part,

In shaddowes doth resemble,

The sundry shapes of deth, whose dart
Shal make my flesh to tremble.

My bed it selfe is like the graue,
My sheetes the winding sheete,

My clothes the mould which I must haue,
To couer me most meete:

The waking cock that early crowes

To weare the night awaye,

Puts in my minde the trumpe that blowes Before the latter day.

And as I ryse up lustily,

When sluggish sleepe is past,

So hope I to rise ioyfully,

To iudgement at the last.

Thus wyll I wake, thus wyll I sleepe,
Thus wyll I hope to ryse,

Thus wyll I neither waile nor weepe,
But sing in godly wyse.

My bones shall in this bed remaine,
My soule in God shall trust,
By whome I hope to ryse againe

From death and earthly dust.

A LETTER FROM ROBERT LOWTH, LORD BISHOP OF LONDON, TO THE
CLERGY OF HIS DIOCESE.-A.D. 1784.

REVEREND BRETHREN,-It was a
great disappointment to me, that my
health would not permit me to attend
you personally in my last Visitation;
though, in regard to every thing
essential and necessary in that busi-
ness, my place was perfectly well sup-
plied by my excellent chancellor.
There was indeed an affair at that
time depending, which I should very
gladly have communicated to you;
an affair in which your interest and
credit, indeed the interest and credit
of the Church of England in general,
was intimately and deeply concerned.
It was the question of the legality of
general bonds of resignation which I
had then determined to contest: a
question which had been decided in
the affirmative by the courts of West-
minster Hall; and upon that decision
had passed for law for almost two
centuries: a decision from the first
never acquiesced in, frequently dis-
puted, but upon no occasion ever
brought by Appeal to the Supreme
Court of Judicature; and therefore, as
I conceived, still open to free discus-
sion in the Supreme Court. I saw
the difficulties that lay in my way,
and the great weight of authority that
was against me. It behoved me,
therefore, to proceed with the utmost
caution. I consulted certain persons
of the highest authority, both in the
civil and ecclesiastical law; persons
far removed from the causes of preju-
dice, and far above the influence of it.
They encouraged me to proceed. I
would take no step in so important a
business without the approbation of
the most reverend the Archbishops.
I explained to them the case that
seemed earnestly to call upon me to
interpose. The event, I acknowledged,
was doubtful; the success to many
might appear almost desperate. I was
myself fully persuaded of the goodness
of the cause; in general I saw it was
not well understood: I thought, there-
fore, it would be of great use, if

nothing more could be obtained, to have it fully explained and laid before the public, by being solemnly pleaded in the House of Lords; for I saw it must necessarily come thither, to have any sort of effect. I professed myself ready to undertake the whole burthen, if they thought well of the design. They were pleased to express their approbation of it. I was prepared at that time to lay before you the whole state of the case, the nature and importance of it, and the grounds upon which I proceeded. Had I been able to meet you at my visitation, I could have taken that opportunity to discourse to you freely and largely upon the subject; but being unable to prosecute that design, I found I could not address you, as I do now, from the press; for that would in effect have been a sort of publication, which, pendente lite, would have been hardly justifiable for it might have been looked upon as an attempt to prejudge the cause. And even when sentence had been given, there were still certain reasons subsisting, which made it improper for me to speak to you of it as a business finally concluded. A bill passed immediately in the House of Lords to indemnify those who had given or received such bonds of resignation. This was rejected by the Commons; but the matter still engaged the attention of that house; and though no motion was made, yet there were inany conversations upon the subject; whence it appeared only, that it was not yet well understood. The late session gave no opportunity for resuming the subject, and the dissolution of parliament has now prevented all thoughts of it for the present.

Give me leave, then, now to congratulate you on the success of an appeal to the Supreme Court of Judicature, which has put an effectual stop to the scandalous and pernicious practice of general bonds of resigna

The Law of Simony: by T. Cunningham, Esq. Barrister-at-Law. Robinson, Paternoster-Row.