put off with nothing but new moon feasts: for, surely, never was a Christian's Magazine opened that exhibited less spiritual stores, less ammunition and artillery, less force of truth, and less strength of argument, than those published by Timothy Priestley. Nor do I believe that any, in this age, has confounded the wise, and puzzled the godly, more than he has done; for, after all the numbers that have been published, and read, it may with propriety be said, that eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of any man living to conceive, what Mr. Priestley means nor what those things are that he has laid up in his Magazines for those that buy and read them!

The generality of the wise agree, that he writes neither law nor gospel: he has neither judgment nor experience; it is neither free-will nor freegrace; he displays no wisdom nor wit; it is neither the letter of scripture nor the power of godliness; there is no divine revelation nor sound reason; neither natural religion nor spiritual religion; nor does the author discover either natural abilities or acquired; there is no human learning, nor divine teaching. So that our wise men are all at a loss, and not one at a point.

We all agree that our Author labours; but whether in the flesh, or in the wind, it is hard to tell. He fights, but neither with the sword of the Spirit, nor the sword of war: he beats the air, He sounds; but whether the ram's horn, or the conch, we cannot as yet find out. He runs; but it is at

such an uncertainty, that we are all at a loss to find out his beat, or where his haunt is.

Some say, that he writes profound mysteries; which they gather from his being so unintelligible, that his sense and meaning exceed the comprehension of all mankind. But one would be led to think, that if he dealt in the mysteries of the gospel, wisdom's children would have some little insight into them, because it is promised that our teachers shall not be moved into a corner any more, but that our eyes shall see our teachers, Isaiah 30, 20. At present, however, we must wait till it shall please God to discover which way our Author is gone, or to make him manifest in our consciences: which will be but a fulfilment of the promise; for, as yet, he is hid from the eyes of all living, and kept close from the fowls of heaven. He keeps our wise men all at bay; all at a loss, and not one at a point; whether to call his productions the effects of insanity, or intoxication. For my own part, if I might be allowed "to give my judgment, as one that hath obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful," I believe they are a composition of both.

I must confess, that Mr. Priestley was altogether a barbarian to me, till this treatise of his, called the Christian's Looking-glass, was put into my hands. In this glass is discovered the soulbeggary, emptiness, and nakedness, of the Author: but no great good can accrue to us from a sight so unseemly; nor can he expect to bring any honour

to his office, by exhibiting to public view what the instinct of an idiot would prompt him to conceal.

Some people think that this Looking-glass discovers something of legerdemain; but I rather think it is tinctured with the wonderful influence of Animal Magnetism; intended chiefly to put hypocrites into a crisis, that Satan, without opposition or resistance, may plunder their consciences of all natural fear and feeling.

It has been by earnest solicitations, and for the sake of weak and timorous souls, who are easily deceived and led astray, that I have consented to handle the Physiognomy reflected from this Look, ing-glass. The Author of it is Timothy Priestley, called the Minister of Jewin Street; and he calls it 'The Christian's Looking-glass; or, the timorous Soul's Guide. Being a Description of the Work of the Holy Spirit upon the Heart. Intended for the Relief of the Disconsolate.' I believe from my heart, that there never was a hypocrite, impos, tor, or apostate, whose portrait stands drawn or recorded in the sacred annals, but what would have admired his beauty and comeliness, if he had been favoured with a peep into this glass. And, as to its being the timorous soul's guide, I must venture to tell the timorous, that if he has no better, no surer, no safer guide than this Looking-glass, he shall never find the door of hope, the path of life, por the portals of heaven.

I thought once, when I heard him in conversa

tion, that he talked like a Christian: but alas! alas! we must go back again, and pray for labourers more sound, more savoury, and more faithful; for as for this Timothy, we know not what is become of him.

The glorious text lugged into this Author's Looking-glass, and which, it is pretended, is to be opened up and explained, is in John iii. 6. "That which is born of the flesh, is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit, is spirit." But surely never was a text more obscured, distorted, injured, wrested, perverted, and butchered, than this. This is not the first time that this sacred passage has fallen among thieves: if we can rescue and recover the sense of it, it will be doing a good work.

The few remarks that I intend to make on this new-manufactured glass, will be with as little quotation from the glass itself as possible; not choosing to fill my pages with hay, straw, and stubble. The reader will observe, that what little I take from Timothy's glass will have Quot. at the beginning, which stands for Quotation; and my reply to the same will be prefaced with Answ. which stands for Answer to the Quotation. This method I have adopted for brevity's sake, to prevent repetition or tautology in a perpetual round of introduction to every reply, in order to direct the answer, which renders a work too prolix. Now for the Looking-glass itself.

Quot. The great Head of the Church has

crowned with success my public labours for a great many years.

Answ. If ever God set the broad seal of Heaven home upon any one soul now living, under such doctrine as this, I am greatly mistaken; and I believe that I may venture to add, that the book of God has led me into this mistake. They that speak a vision out of their own heart, when they have seen nothing; and they who steal the word every one from his neighbour; and they who run unsent; God says, shall not profit his people at all. They may, in one sense of the word, cast out devils, but they never can minister the Spirit of God, being only ministers of the letter, or of men. A blind guide may make converts such as himself; but a soul truly converted to God, and by God, differs widely from such converts; and I think he differs too from Mr. Priestley, or from any convert of his. If you have any one real seal in the land of the living, that God has given you under the ministry of the doctrines of this book, I should like to see his conversion published, and should like to publish what the scriptures call conversion at the same time; and let the Church of God at large have the satisfaction of comparing them together, and of passing their judgment upon both. But this is a work which, I believe, Mr. Priestley will never trouble himself about; and therefore I shall hold fast this persuasion, that God will never own, nor honour, such confusion and falsehood as