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fpace of five minutes. Then raifing himself up as in frantic defpair, he cried out, "I am damned! I am damned! I am damned after all!"

For two hours before this dreadful agony began, he spoke, when his ftrength would permit, of the bleffed privileges of true believers, and of his own peace with God, and of his affurance of eternal happiness. But O! who can fathom the mystery of divine Providence, or tell why God per nits such ftrange trials to befal his fervants!

I ought to obferve, that before, in, and after this dreadful conflict, he had the use of his reafon as perfect as ever he had in all his life. But O, how vain, how impotent is reafon in the hour of fuch darkness ?

After awhile this dreadful conflict yielded to thofe healing promifes, The Lord fhall give thee the defire of thine heart upon thine enemy. The Lord will never leave thee, nor forfake thee, &c. &c. His countenance now changed from the wildeft horror I ever faw, into the moft evident signs of peace and joy; while, from the fulness of his heart, he joyfully proclaimed his deliverance from the hellish oppreffor: often erying out, Jefus! my God and my All!-Yes, Jefus will give me the defire of my heart upon my enemy!-O how far did the enemy exact upon me, and the fon of wickednefs. afflict me!-He made me believe I fhould not die.-He came to me as an angel of light.-O how far did he deceive me!He then brought fix texts of fcripture to prove that I was not a child of God, and that I had deceived myfelf.-But glory be to God! Jefus brought ten to prove him a liar.-O thou cruel enemy, Jefus will give me the defire of my heart upon thee! Now I know that my Redeemer liveth-Jefus, thou art my God! my life! my light! my joy!" Thus he went on without bounds or measure, glorifying God for his deliverance, and expreffing his aftonishment at the delufions the devil had led him into; and at God's great goodness in faving him from the hand of the destroyer.

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From this time he began to weaken every hour: and now knowing the hour of his departure drew nigh, he called his friends around him, and took an affectionate farewel of them all; giving a kind advice to each as he faw need. While he could fpeak his converfation was heavenly, and when his tongue began to faulter, his eyes and countenance spoke the joys and pleasures of his foul. In the evening his fpeech failed, and death's dread work was visible in every part. About midnight he began to ceafe breathing, fometimes for near a minute together; and then would revive again, and fo continued till five in the morning, when, with a deep figh, he breathed out his laft!

Sligo, March 30, 1785,

T

An Account of ANN GREEN.

IN the year 1650, one Ann Green, a fervant to Sir Thomas Read, of Dunftrew, in Oxfordshire, being with child by a fervant in the family, by over-working herfelf, fell in labour at the end of the fourth month. But not knowing what was the after matter fhe repaired to the Neceffary-houfe, where fometime, a child, not above a fpan long, fell from her unawares. Shortly after fome ftains appearing on the linen where the lay, and fhe having confeffed herself guilty of the cause, a fearch was made, and the child found. On this, fhe was, three days after her delivery, carried to the Cafle at Oxford, where an Affize being held by a fpecial Commiffion, she was arraigned, tried, and condemned; and, according to her fentence, hanged in the Caftle-yard, where fhe hung the ufual time. But ftill ftirring, fhe was pulled by the legs, ftruck on the breaft, and in the end had feveral strokes given her on the ftomach with the butt-end of a foldiers' musket. Being cut down, she was put into a coffin, and brought away.

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to be diffected; when, upon opening the coffin, (although the rope remained ftill unloofed, and tight about her neck) they perceived her breaft to heave. On this, one to put her out of her pain, fet his foot on her breast and belly: then a foldier ftruck her again with the butt-end of his mufket. Notwithftanding all which, when Sir William Petty, Profeffor of Anatomy in the Univerfity, came to prepare the body for diffection, they perceived a rattling in her throat. Where? upon, defifting from their purpose, they opened a vein, laid her in a warm bed, and caused another to go to bed to her. In about fourteen hours fhe began to revive, and foon spoke plainly.

The Officers would have taken her again to have compleated the execution; but through the mediation of the Doctors, who were prefent, the Governor of the town fet a guard upon her to hinder all disturbance, till a pardon was procured for her.

Dr. Petty and other Doctors enquiring concerning her fenfe and apprehenfions, during the time of her hanging, till fhe came to herself, fhe affirmed, That fhe neither remembered how her fetters were taken off; how she went out of prison;' when he was turned off the ladder; nor any thing at the gallows nor was fhe fenfible of any pain fhe had felt. What is farther obfervable is, that he came to herself as one awaking out of sleep: not recovering her speech by degrees, but at once, and beginning to speak just where she left off at the gallows.

After being perfectly recovered, and having returned thanks to God and her Benefactors, for her deliverance, the retired to Steeple Barton in the fame county, where he married; had three children; and lived in good repute for feveral years,

-The

AS

The REMAINS of JOHN NELSON.

S the Name and Character of that plain, ufeful man, John Nelfon, are held in fuch high and general esteem, the following fragments he has left behind him will be acceptable to those who knew him.

FRAGMENT FIRST: concerning his Grand-Daughter.

My Grand-daughter about fixteen years of age, rejoiced in the Lord about fix weeks before fhe died. Her laft words to her father and mother werę, Fret not; for I am going to Jefus, and to help the angels to praise God."

[The Second in our next.]

OF GOD'S IMMENSITY.

[Extracted from a late Author.]

HE abfolutely infinite, neceffary, felf-exiftent Being muft be omnipotent; not "because abfolute neceffity (as, Dr. Clarke fays) is always and every where the fame:" which feems to be no proof; but because the indivisible, all-comprehenfive mind must be at all times, entirely, and equally prefent (both by the totality of his abfolute effence, and by the perfect exercife of his attributes) to all beings, whether material or fpiritual. This is incomprehensible; but not impoffible. We fancy it fuch, only because we imagine; that there is an infinite fpace diftinct from God, which he fills by local diffufion; and then it would be abfurd and contradictory to fay, that he is as much in an atom, as in the whole of matter. For what is entirely and locally in a part, cannot be at the fame time entirely and locally in the whole. When we think therefore of God's immenfity, we must abstract from it all ideas

of

of extenfion and diffufion; as when we think of his eternity, we must drop all ideas of fucceflion and time.

Some imagine they have clearer ideas of God's eternity, than of his immenfity; of his unfucceffive duration, than of his unextenfive exiftence: and that we may conceive how he knows and loves himself always by one permanent act, without fucceffion; but that we can have no idea how he exists entirely every where, without extenfion. The reafon is, because we have no adequate idea of God's effence, nor indeed of any fubftance whatsoever. So foon as we begin to imagine what Spirit is, we immediately extend and corporalize it. Immerfed in fenfe and drunk with imagination, we cannot imagine that to be reality which is not extended; as children believe air to be an empty void or nothing, because they do not feel or fee it: but when we rife above fense and bridle imagination, we foon difcover that God muft exift without diffusion of parts, as without fucceffion of thoughts; and that there can be no phyfical relation between the properties of the eternal mind, power, wifdom, and will; and the properties of matter, divisibility, figuratively and mobility. We cannot fay a span of power, an ell of wisdom, and a yard of will. It is true indeed that we exprefs very often the attributes of spirit by thefe of body, a high mind, a profound judgment, a foft heart; but then we speak only in a metaphorical, figurative way, and not in a phyfical, literal one.

The schoolmen have miferably obfcured the doctrine of Eternity, and Immenfity, by their dull, infipid comparisons. They conceive, God's immenfity as a point, and his eternity as a moment. Pitiful jargon. So foon as we imagine the infinite mind under any form relative to infinite, whether it be a point or a moment; an infinite extenfion, or infinite fucceffion, we corporalize God, or humanize him. To fancy that he is contracted into a point, or expanded through infinite space is degrading his nature. He exifts every where and always without extenfion and without fucceffion. This is all we fhould

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