etters, a few quotations from which I here infert." October 11, 1786. I am fixt on the rock of eternal ages, which cannot fail: blefs the Lord, O my foul, and all that is within me, blefs his holy name: for he faves thee out of the hands of all thine enemies, and crowns thee with mercies and loving kindness.”

"October 22, Glory be unto God he leads me on conquering, and to conquer; and keeps me from the fpirit of the world, from the corruptions of my own heart, and faves me for his name and mercy's fake. Thanks be unto God, who has bought me with his own blood, that I might serve him in newness of life. O that all my old life was dead! Bleffed be God I do die! yet it is but flowly. O my God, make bare thine almighty arm, and glorify thyfelf by nailing all my earthly affections to thy cross, and let them eternally die, that I may prove the fullness of thy refurrection's power, and to thy name be all the glory."

“December 26. I have been poorly this week past, yet wrought very hard. I dwell with wicked companions, whose mouths are full of curfing and all manner of abominations; but Jefus keeps my foul in peace. Glory be to God, this

will not always laft. The time is haftening apace: a little more faith and patience, and I fhall wear a glorious crown.

"Give joy or grief, give ease or pain;

Take life or friends away :

I trust to find them all again,

In that eternal day."

His diforder increafing, he was obliged to leave his place and come home. After fome time he grew better, but the enfuing year he caught repeated colds, which brought on his old dif order again, and gradually wore him down; yet ftill he increased in spiritual strength.

The state of his mind appears from a letter, which I received in Auguft 1788. "I still find that I have a Saviour which is Chrift the Lord. O that I could love him with all my heart! I have given up my felf into his merciful hands, Y y 2

and

1

and have a strong confidence that he will perfect the work he has begun in my poor heart." "October 1788, I find the prefence of the Lord faving my foul from fin; though he has not yet destroyed its root; but bleffed be God, it does not reign, for Jefus enables me to go on conquering ftill." "December 24, 1788, What a bleffed life is the life of faith, and a well-grounded hope of a better refurrection! There are many who have gained the Port, and we are daily haftening thither, where all tears will be for ever wiped away." In the former part of the year 1789, he could not write; but in July, he wrote as follows. "I have been very near landing on the blissful fhore; but the Lord's time is not yet. I have been better for three or four days paft. It is through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom. Who would refuse to follow their fuffering Lord, when they know the bleffings he has promifed, even for light afflictions, which are but for a moment, an exceeding and eternal weight of glory!"

66

August 5, 1789. I find free access to a throne of grace, by the blood of Jefus, and truft that all things fhall work together for my good. The trial of our faith is precious. This is the gold, that is tried in the fire of tribulation, which makes us rich. I find Jefus is my only friend: his comforts refresh my foul: he is my life! my God! my all!" He bore the decays of nature with chriftian fortitude, and could not refrain from exulting often at the profpect of being for ever with the Loid. As long as he was able, he preached Jesus to all that came to fee him.

Sunday the twenty-fecond of November was the laft day of his fitting up. I believe on Sunday night the work of Sanctifi cation was compleated in his foul; from which time he was full of love, and heaven was in his countenance. One of his friends coming in on Monday morning, and afking him how he found his mind? he anfwered, "O! happy! I have built upon a rock!" He lay very fill all day. If any asked him how he found himfelf? he answered, "In peace." I

spent

fpent most of the day with him in repeating texts of Scripture, and verfes of hymns, and it was a happy day to my foul. He was very fenfible till about eleven o'clock, when his convulfions came upon him very faft; but even then, at intervals, he repeated texts of Scripture; and between five and fix on Tuesday morning took his flight to eternal day.

S. C.

A COMPARISON of Ancient FABLE, with the SACRED WRITINGS.

[By Mr. William De'Lavaur.]

[Continued from page 312.]

Of BACCHUS or DIONYSIUS.

THE

HE fingularity of the birth of Bacchus, his name, the great varieties of his furnames, taken from those which the holy Scriptures give to the true God, and the refemblance of his moft confiderable actions with those which are related in the facred writings, evidence to all those who will pay attention to it, that Fable has derived from this Source all the marvels, with which it has compofed its God. It is copied in part from Noah, and in part from Nimrod: but the greatest part is taken from Mofes, and the prodigies he wrought, the memory of which was recent, and celebrated when Cadmus retiring from Phenicia into Greece, carried with him the worfhip of Bacchus, which the Phenicians had received from Affyria.

There were feveral of the name of Bacchus. Diodorus and Philoßratus reckon three; one of Thebes in Egypt, the second an Indian, and the third an Affyrian. Cicero reckons five, one of whom was born of the Nile, according to Orpheus in his hymn; and according to the common opinion, Bacchus was born on the banks of that river, of Jupiter and Semele, a

Theban.

Theban. Fable feigns that Semele, having the ambition to be vifited by Jupiter in all his majefty and thunder, was firuck dead with the fight; and that Jupiter took the infant from the womb of his dead mother, and fewed it up in his thigh, from whence he was born, when the natural term was accomplished. This occafioned the furnames of Bimater, Dithrambus, and Bifgenitus, as if he had two mothers, or was twice born.

After he was born he was fhut up in a cheft, and expofed on the river, from whence he is called Nilus, both by Diodorus and Macrobius; and Orpheus in his hymns calls him Myfes, i. e. taken out of the water. He is reprefented as having a rod twifted about with ferpents in his hand, called Thynis, with which he wrought many miracles, and which his worshippers carried in the celebration of his myfteries: they attributed to him the first plantation of the Vine, and invention of Wine after the univerfal deluge; fome of which he planted on mount Libanus in Palefline, where they fay, he had carried his conquefts.

We may fee clearly in the foregoing the adventures of Mofes, who was also an Egyptian, the birth and cradle of whom becoming celebrated, were the original of the ridicuJous birth and cradle of Bacchus, who was named by the Greeks Lychnithes, from Lycnon, which fignifies a cradle. As foon as Mofes was born, his parents were obliged to hide him, and afterwards to expofe him on the river Nile, where he was found by Pharaoh's daughter, who being charmed with his beauty, caufed him to be taken up and adopted him for her own fon. Philo relates that the even feigned to be preg nant, and afterwards to lye in, from whence it has been faid of Bacchus, that he had two mothers, and was born twice.

Bacchus was represented as exceeding beautiful, and always young; and Jofephus fays that Mofes was fo beautiful, that none could look on him without being charmed by him: the Scriptures intimate the fame. The fabulous birth of Bacchus in the midit of the thunder and lightening, and ma

jefly

jefty of Jupiter, is a corruption of the history of Mofes, who was forty days with God on mount Sinai, enveloped with flames: the lightenings the Hebrews themselves faw, and probably thought him confumed by them, till to their aftonithment they faw him come out a new man.

It was this circumftance which caufed Bacchus to be called Ignigenitus, i. e. born of the fire: it was alfo from this mountain that the Poets took occasion to say that he was educated at Nyfia, a tranfpofition of the word Sinai, on which Mofes received inftructions from God together with the law on two tables which he gave to the people. Voffius fays that in the chronology of Alexandria, Nyfa, and Sinai in Arabia, are confounded as the fame mountain. The two tables of Laws which Orpheus in his hymns, fays Bacchus, gave to Beroe near mount Libanus, are only a copy of thofe of Mofes; as alfo the horns they fay Bacchus had on his forehead, the appearance of which was seen on Mofes when he came down from the

mountain.

The name of Bacchus, as Bochart has obferved, is taken from Bar-chus, i. e. the fon of Chus, who was Nimrod, from whence Bacchus was called Nebrod by the Greeks. One of his ancient names was Zaypos, Zagreus, which fignifies a great and vigorous hunter, which is the fame the Scripture defigns by Nimrod, who is expressly called fuch, Gen. x. 9.

We need not be furprized that Bacchus is composed of fo many persons in facred history; but the greateft part is copied from Mofes, as Voffius has remarked, who believes that the Bacchus of the Indians was formed from Noah, and the Bacchus of Egypt and Arabia, from Mofes.. However in the end the adventures of the one and the other were confounded, and ftill more altered.

It is hardly neceffary to observe that Bacchus's passage through the Red Sea, at his going out of Egypt, the drying up of the waves, and caufing them to return with a blow of his rod and drown his enemies who pursued him, are taken

from