revelation have one and the same Author, and both taken together, constitute the two-fold set of laws adapted for the government of the compound being, man; so the theory which does not make them agree, must, undoubtedly be founded on error. But what are we to do with the difficulties, it may be asked? For, that there are difficulties in both, cannot be denied. "He who believes the scripture to have proceeded from Him who is the Author of nature," said a Christian father,* "may well expect to find the same sort of difficulties in it, as are found in the constitution of nature." scription this year, you subscribed only half-a-guinea.' He made no reply; but after a time asked, 'Pray, Sir, answer me a question :—why do you live upon potatoes? (I did so between three and four years.) I replied, 'It has much conduced to my health.' He answered, I believe it has. But did you not do it likewise to save money?' I said, 'I did, for what I save from my own meat, will feed another that else would have none.'-' But, Sir,' said he, if this be your motive, you may save much more; I know a man that goes to market at the beginning of every week. There he buys a pennyworth of parsnips, which he boils in a large quantity of water. The parsnips serve him for food, and the water for drink, the ensuing week, so his meat and drink together cost him only a penny a week. This he constantly did, though he had two hundred pounds a year, to pay the debts which he had contracted before he knew God!'-And this was he, whom I had set down for a covetous man!" Since, then, it is admitted that there are difficulties in both, what are we to do with these? We are to seek for the solution of real difficulties which occur in nature, not in the theories of men respecting them, but in the volume of inspiration; for here, in most cases, such solutions are alone to be found. And on the other hand, many of the real difficulties which occur in scripture, are alone to be solved, by references to the history of nature and of providence. Hence, therefore, the propriety of connecting, and of not GENEROUS BUT UNFORTUNATE ACTION allowing, on any account, these two sources of all our information to be separated. Nature and revelation are the two volumes written by the finger of God, and contain innumerable references from the one to the other; so that neither can be rightly understood, unless both are attended to. *Origen. Philo. p. 23. CAUTION AGAINST CENSORIOUS JUDGMENT. On this subject, the late Rev. John Wesley has recorded the following fact, occurring under his own immediate observation. OF A SAILOR. The FIVE years have nearly performed their revolution, since John Carnchan (a seaman) and a little boy, prepared to go ashore in a boat from the smack Jane, of Carrickfergus, then lying at anchor off Silver Stream, about two miles and a half from that town. boy first entered the boat in safety; but as the seaman was descending the side of the smack, to enter also, he lost his hold, fell upon the gunwale of the boat, upset her, and both were precipitated to the bottom of the deep. "Beware," says he, "of forming a When they came again to the surface hasty judgment concerning the fortune of the water, both made towards the of others. There may be secrets in boat, which the wind and the surge of the situation of a person, which few the sea had driven to a short distance. but God are acquainted with. Some But as the boy happened to rise nearyears since, I told a gentleman, Sir, er to her than the seaman, he reached I am afraid you are covetous.' He her first, and clung to her stern. In a asked me, 'What is the reason of your few seconds the seaman also arrived fears? I answered, 'A year ago, at the boat, but when he caught hold when I made a collection for the ex- of her for support, how great must pense of repairing the Foundry, you have been the anguish of his heart to subscribed five guineas; at the sub-find, that she was incapable of pre serving both their lives, and that if one of them did not relinquish his hold, the boat would inevitably go to the bottom. known God. But infidels have boldly asserted to the contrary-that there is no God. Let them, however, trace effects to their causes, and they will find that there must be a great first cause, who created man, and, “who, but enough has been said in your October magazine, col. 912, upon this subject, in an essay entitled "Atheim an Absurdity." The immortality of the soul, they have also denied; and thus degraded man below the brute: for as the desires of our souls are infinite, it can never be supposed, that the Great Architect of Nature would endow us with desires and faculties, which can never be gratified. Can we suppose that he who breathed into our nostrils the breath of life, should design us only for this transient life? No, the soul When the boy found the boat to be sinking, he addressed the seaman in the most earnest and suppliant lan-ever busy, rules the silent spheres:" guage to let go his hold. "Ah! (says he,) will you see me drowned, gracious heaven! what shall I do! Dear, dear parents, must I never behold you again!" The benevolent, the generous, the tender-hearted Carnchan, touched with the piercing accents of the boy, immediately relinquished his hold, and, as he was an excellent swimmer, made towards the shore; for the smack was so high above the surface of the water, and two of the crew that remained in her were so stupified with terror, that they were unable to render them the least assistance. But, alas! the seaman had not proceeded forty perches when his strength failed him, and he sunk, to rise no more! Thus, this excellent and compassionate character fell a victim to his own generosity; to preserve the life of a fellow-creature, he exposed his own to the greatest danger. His object, indeed, was accomplished, for the boy was saved; but the sweet consolation of having saved a fellow-creature from destruction was not permitted to cheer his departing moments. -shall flourish in immortal youth Unhurt, amidst the war of elements, The wreck, of matter, and the crush of worlds." But they also, by declaring the Bible untrue, would rob the Christian of his comfort and support under difficulties. One of the strongest proofs for the truth of the Bible is, that remarkable chain of prophecy which distinguishes it throughout. But the infidel says, that, as this prophetic spirit has subsided, the prophecies are only histories, written after the events had come to pass. This is an old objection; it was urged by the earliest eneOBSERVATIONS ON THE NATURE OF mies of revelation, and refuted by its W. L Carrickfergus, Oct. 8, 1821. INFIDELITY. BY JUVENIS. R. INFIDELITY, which had been wandering about the earth like a malignant spectre, only cherished in the minds of a few individuals, became imbodied into a club, under Voltaire, D'Alembert, and other French philosophers. Its design was to suppress Christianity, and to disseminate vice, by propagating a system of philosophy more cold and cheerless to the mind of man, than any that had hitherto afflicted the world. It denied the existence of a God, declared that death was only an eternal sleep of the soul, and contemned the truth of the Bible. earliest friends. But whatever may be said respecting some distant predictions, it is certain that there are others, to which this objection cannot apply; especially to those that are receiving their fulfilment in the present day. Among these may be included, those which relate to the establishment of Mahometanism, to the antichristian dominion of the Pope, and to the dispersed condition of the Jews. Mahomet continues at the present moment, to raise his proud crescent in the cast; and, until the reformation dawned upon our ancestors, the papal antichrist drew the dark curtain of ignorance over this country. But "the Sun of The existence of a supreme being righteousness arose with healing in has been believed even by heathens; his wings;" and dispersing the mists for when St. Paul went to Athens, he of error, emancipated us from those found there an altar erected to the Un-chains of superstition, which several The nations still continue to wear. Jews, though scattered among the various kingdoms of the world, and carrying with them the records of their own destiny, remain every where a distinct people. Their conquerors have disappeared, having been melted down among the nations with which they have had an intercourse, while the vanquished still survive, exhibiting to the world that "blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in." In relation to civilized society, wherever infidelity prevails, there anarchy and confusion will soon follow. This was the case in France. The scaffolds streamed with the blood of its nobles. It was infidelity which murdered the sovereign, to make way for a set of tyrants to rule with the dagger of terror, under the olive branch of peace; and it was this power which caused the waters of the Loire to swell with the blood of the mangled victims of its cruelty. Derby, Dec. 9, 1821. MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE AND TIMES OF LEONARDO ARETINO. (Concluded from col. 134.) It has been already mentioned, that, immediately on his deposition, John XXII. was conveyed, in pursuance of the orders of the council, to the fortress of Gotleben. This event took place in the month of June, 1415.* The assembled fathers seem not to have been in haste to fill the vacancy which had thus occurred in the papal chair. The critical state of the church, no doubt, required that they should proceed upon this important measure with due deliberation, and they, in all probability, deemed it expedient, before they entered upon a new election, to make a variety of regulations concerning ecclesiastical matters, in the maturing of which they would have been thwarted and embarrassed by the jealousy of an actual occupant of the pontifical throne. Two years and upwards elapsed before their plans were ripened; and at length, on the 7th of Nov. 1417, the electors entered the conclave, in which they were watched L'Enfant's Council of Constance, vol. i. P. 310. and guarded with the utmost strictness. The Emperor was gone before to the episcopal palace, to which they were all to repair before they shut themselves up. At their arrival he alighted from his horse, and received them at the gate of the palace, with so many marks of respect and devotion, that from many of them he drew tears. When they had entered the palace before the cathedral, they all fell on their knees; and whilst they were in that posture, the Patriarch of Antioch, accompanied by the clergy, with the cross and a great number of wax tapers borne before them, went out of the church in his pontifical habit, and gave them his blessing, after which they arose and went to the conclave. The Emperor was already there, and took each of the electors by the hand to lead them in; earnestly entreating them to choose such a man as they thought worthy of the triple crown, without partiality or unseemly disputes. They then entered, by torch light, into the conclave, which had been carefully darkened. They took each but one waiting man, though they were allowed two a piece, so that the whole number of those who were shut up in the conclave, amounted to one hundred and six. When they had entered with the Emperor, he caused them all to take an oath, that they would choose a Pope of piety and good manners, able and willing to After this oath reform the church. was administered, the Emperor retired, and the conclave was locked up. All possible measures were taken for the security of this place. Two princes, with the grand master of Rhodes, kept watch at the gate day and night, with the keys hung about their necks; and upon the steps there were six soldiers, who were enjoined to so profound a silence that they were not heard to speak. Before the house where the conclave was, there was placed a table, at which sat the Bishops and Doctors, appointed to search the dishes carried to the conclave, for fear lest any letters or billets should be conveyed in the dishes or cups. After this search, the Grand Master of Rhodes carried the dish or bowl, in which was the meat or drink, to the window, and gave it to the servant of him to whom the vessel belonged, who at the same time returned back that in which any meat or drink had been brought to him before. The result of these precautions thus taken to prevent the spirit of intrigue and worldly ambition from interfering with the more elevated motives by which the choice of the conclave ought to be dictated, was, that after some stormy debates, the suffrages of the electors were, on the 10th of Nov. 1417, unanimously bestowed on Otto Colonna, a member of a noble Roman family of high distinction, who immediately, on his nomination to the pontificate, assumed the name of Martin V.† Thus terminated the famous schism of the West, but not before this ecclesiastical feud had given a deadly blow to the pontifical authority. Gregory had died about a month before the nomination of Martin; Benedict XIII. though he thundered his anathemas from the fortress of Paniscola, found so few supporters, that his fulminations were regarded as objects of contempt; and Martin was acknowledged as Pontiff by all the powers of Christendom. Still, however, the past could not be forgotten. Princes and deputies had publicly sat in judgment on an impeached Pope; and the detail of his crimes, and his consequent deposition, must have occasioned in the minds of thinking men, most perplexing doubts and difficulties, as to the high question of the infallibility, which had been hitherto supposed to stamp the principles and the actions of the father of the faithful. Though Martin V. was thus elevated to the pontifical dignity, he was not, for the present, enabled to take possession of the territories appended to this exalted station. The dominions of the church were the prey of factions and of petty usurpers, which he had not the means to repress. On the dissolution of the council, therefore, which event took place on the 22d of April, 1418, he repaired to Geneva, whence, after crossing the Alps, he went to Mular and to Mantua, where he remained till the end of the year, when he proceeded to Florence.‡ At the Tuscan capital, Martin was received by the constituted authorities with every token of respect; and soon after his arrival in Florence, he had the satisfaction of receiving the submission of John XXII. the deposed Pontiff, who, having escaped from the place of his confinement, came to throw himself on his mercy. Martin received his fallen predecessor with kindness, and bestowed upon him the dignity of Cardinal, which, however, he did not long enjoy, as he died at Florence before the termination of the year.§ It has been observed, that the Tuscan government treated Martin with the honours due to his rank; but this does not seem to have been the case with the populace, at least towards the close of his residence in their city. To the licentiousness of the vulgar, his poverty was an object of contempt, and they vented their ridicule of him in contumelious songs. Leonardo, who had been assiduous in his attentions to him since the time of his arrival, observed with pain, that the rudeness of the rabble had made a deep impression on his mind, and that he was about to quit the Florentine state with very unfavourable impressions of the character of his countrymen. These impressions, as we learn from the following narrative, Leonardo, with much good sense and judgment, endeavoured to do away. "I remember," says he, "only a few days before Martin's departure. I was with him in his chamber, together with one or two of his chamberlains, and no one else. He was walking from his library to the window which overlooks the gardens, when, after taking a few turns in silence, he suddenly came up to me, and looking stedfastly in my face, and raising his arm a little, he said, ‘Pope Martin it seems is not worth a farthing.' I instantly recognized the words, for they were the burden of a song made upon him, and which runs thus in the Italian language, 1420, he expressed his obligations to them for their protection and assisttance, and recounted the fortunate circumstances which had occurred to him during his abode in their capital, in the very order which Leonardo had suggested to him.† From Florence, Martin repaired to Rome, which was now eager to open its gates to receive him. On this accession of prosperity, the Pontiff, who had been long sensible of the abilities and the integrity of Leonardo, wished to engage him in his service. But though his offers of remuneration were splendid, and his promises of ad unable to tempt the learned Florentine again to enter into the Roman chancery. In the year 1426, Leonardo had an opportunity of renewing his friendly intercourse with the Pontiff, as he was then sent to Rome, as envoy from the Tuscan state, to negociate, under the mediation of his holiness, a peace between the Florentine republic and the Duke of Milan. of my ability. I therefore took the liberty to say to him:-"No state, most holy father, has bestowed upon yourself and the holy see, such signal services as those which you have received from the Tuscan republic. You came to Florence at a time, when you were destitute of temporal dominion. At that period, the country was so fully occupied by your adversaries, that instead of procceding hither for Ferrara, by way of Bologna, which was in a state of rebellion, you were obliged to take a long circuit through Ravenna and Forli. During your residence in Florence, the other towns of the papal territory have yielded to your autho-vancement highly flattering, he was rity; and Bologna has submitted. And these happy effects have been brought about by the interposition of the Tuscan state, which, by procuring for your holiness the aid of Braccio di Montone, has enabled you to reduce your rebellious subjects to obedience, so that your power is now most widely extended. During your residence here, also, the Spanish cardinals, deserting the cause of Benedict, have come to you in person, to offer you their homage; and, which is of the utmost importance, John XXII. concerning the regularity of whose abdication, as having been obtained by force, doubts might have been entertained, trusting his person to the honour of our republic, has thrown himself at your feet, and acknowledged you as the true Pontiff. As this event, which was speedily followed by his death, clears away all doubts as to your title to the pontificate, so you may be assured that John would have ventured to take this step in no other city but this, where he was sheltered from danger by the security of public and of private friendship. These are the advantages which you have derived from your residence in the city of Florence; and permit me to remark to your holiness, that it is hardly consistent with the dignity of your character to suffer the remembrance of them to be obliterated by resentment at an idle song." Martin listened to this remonstrance with patience. It should seem, also, that he profited by the advice of Leonardo, for, on taking leave of the Florentine magistracy, in the year Leon. Aret. Rerum Italic. Historia, p. 259. + Ibid. No. 38.-Vol. IV. This employment was the prelude to more permanent honours; for, in the year 1427, he was promoted to the office of Secretary to the Republic, which he held, occasionally in conjunction with other municipal honours, till the time of his death, which event took place in the year 1444.§ The loss of Leonardo was regarded by his countrymen as a public calamity; and, in testimony of their respect for his memory, they resolved to inter his remains with extraordinary honours. Reviving, then, an ancient custom, they invited the public functionaries, and the ambassadors from foreign states, to attend his obsequies. In the midst of this august assemblage, Gianozzo Manetti, a scholar of considerable reputation, pronounced an eulogium on his virtues, and concluded the ceremony by encircling the brows of his deceased friend with a crown of laurel. Leonardo was buried in the church of Santa Croce ; and the spot where his remains were deposited is still marked by a monument, which bears the following inscription, POSTQVAM LEONARDVS E VITA MIGRAVIT HISTORIA LVGET ELOQVENTIA MVTA EST FERTVRQVE MVSAS TVM GRAECAS TVM LATINAS LACRIMAS TENERE NON POTVISSE. Mehi Vita Leon. Aret. P. xliv. § Ibid. p. xlv. P |