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port, then, of that spiritual family with which you are connected, first contribute with a devoted heart and a willing hand; when its wants are fully supplied, then seek another depository for your contributions to the cause of God.

In conclusion, brethren, suffer us once more to entreat your zealous co-operation in this "work of faith and labour of love," and especially your union with us in fervent prayer to our common Lord, that he would indeed establish our Zion on 66 the rock of ages;" that he would make fast the bars of her gates, and bless her children in her," that he would make her "an eternal excellency, a joy of many generations."

"We commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among them that are sanctified through the faith that is in Christ Jesus."

OBITUARY.

THE Honourable John Phillips, whose death has been recently an nounced, was born in Boston, on the 26th of November, A. D. 1770. He was deprived of the blessing of a father's care before he was two years old, and at the early age of seven, became a student at Phillips's academy in Andover, where he acquired the rudiments of his education. He was favoured in having a mother, who was judicious and persevering, with great strength of mind. To her, straitened as she was in her pecuniary circumstances, he felt, in his maturer years, that he owed every thing he was in life, bis education, and all his prosperity. She lived to witness his success; to take delight in the many tokens of confidence and respect which were given him; to receive, in his deportment towards her, the recompense of the most exemplary filial piety, and preceded him but a few weeks, as we trust, in her passage to the regions of the blessed.

At Andover, he was an inmate in the family, and, being a kinsman, enjoyed the benefit of the friendship and of the counsel of the late Lt. Gov. Samuel Phillips, a gentleman remembered, by many now upon the stage of life, as distinguished for unwavering integrity, sound judgment and fervent piety. for whose character Mr. Phillips always expressed the most affectionate and sincere respect.

From Andover, he was removed to Harvard college; and, in 1788, he was graduated bachelor of arts, having assigned to him, in the exercises of commencement, one of the most honourable performances in his class. He immediately commenced the study of the law in Boston; before arriving at the age of twenty-one, was in practice as a lawyer; and, from this period until his decease, continued to reside among us. Soon after commencing practice, he was appointed county attorney for Suffolk, and upon the establishment of the municipal court, in 1800, he was elected by the people the first town advocate to represent them before that tribunal, to which office he was annually chosen until he declined a re-election. In 1803, he repre

sented his native town in the legislature, and in 1804, was chosen a senator for the district of Suffolk, to which situation he was annually re-elected nineteen years, retaining it until his death. During the last ten years, he was president of the senate, and it is confidently believed has left behind him a reputation for impartiality, dignity, and promptness, in the discharge of the duties of that high station, which has never been surpassed. In 1809, he was honoured with a commission as judge of the court of common pleas. His speeches in the convention of 1820, and upon many other occasions, were distinguished for their condensation of much solid argument; they exhibited strength of mind, and were delivered with uncommon impressiveness of manner. It was not his habit in any assembly to occupy the floor for a long period, but he always commanded attention and his opinions were received with great respect. His recent election, to the office of mayor, was a decided expression of the publick sentiment in his favour, unsolicited by him or his friends. In that difficult situation, he did much which commanded the respect of those who were associated with him in the administration; which drew from his successor the well-earned compliment that "it was impossible for him, after having examined the records of the city, to refrain from expressing the sense he entertained of the services of the high and honourable individual who had filled the chair of the city during the past year, as well as of those of the wise, prudent, and faithful citizens who composed, during that period, the city council." "The first administration," says he, "have laid the foundations of the prosperity of our city deep, and on right principles, and whatever success may attend those who come after them, they will be largely indebted for it to the wisdom and fidelity of their predecessors ;" and future magistrates, perceiving the fruits of his prudence and judgment, long after he has slept with his fathers, shall rise up and call him blessed. But whilst his publick services claim and have received the testimony of this community's gratitude, it is upon the recollection of his domestick character, that his friends will longest delight to dwell. His example, as a citizen, a man, and a Christian, is indeed precious. In the close relations of husband, son, father, and brother, he was most exemplary.

Probably no man among us has been so often solicited to accept the trusts of executor and guardian. Many of these requests he declined, from necessity, being occupied with publick business; with how much fidelity and skill he executed these trusts, when accepted, can best be told by those who have been the objects of his care.He was eminently and disinterestedly the friend and counsellor of the widow and the orphan.

There was much in the character of Mr. Phillips, which commanded respect, and much which conciliated affection and esteem. Urbanity, integrity, and wisdom, were its most prominent traits. In his manners, he was dignified, without distance or reserve; always affable

and accessible to all. His modesty, notwithstanding the many publick and prominent situations which he had sustained, was remarkable. In the family circle, his benign aspect, his cheerful pleasantry, and his manly and instructive conversation, will be fondly remembered, long after the recollection of his publick services shall have faded from the publick mind. That circle so lately enlivened by his presence, cheered by his smiles, and guided by his paternal counsels, is now desolate. The wind has passed over him and he is gone. God has changed his countenance and sent him away. His pure spirit, spared the agony of a painful conflict, was released without a struggle.

His religious views and impressions were strong and practical. He exhibited his reverence for the ordinances of our holy religion, by a devout and humble participation of the holy sacrament. His family daily witnessed his devotions, and he was not ashamed in his addresses on publick occasions to confess his faith and veneration of the religion of Jesus Christ. "Purity of manners," says he, in his address upon his inauguration as mayor, "and strict attention to the education of the young; above all, a firm, practical belief of that Divine revelation, which has affixed the penalty of unceasing anguish to vice, and promised to virtue rewards of interminable duration, will counteract the evils of any form of government ;" and at the close, "I will detain you no longer, from the discharge of the important duties which now devolve upon you, than to invite you to unite in beseeching the Father of light, without whose blessing all exertion is fruitless, and whose grace alone can give efficacy to the counsels of human wisdom, to enlighten and guide our deliberations with the influence of his Holy Spirit, and then we cannot fail to promote the best interests of our fellow-citizens."

His upright, gentlemanly, and able course of conduct, amidst the unavoidable collisions of the bar, his dignified and independent deportment upon the bench, his unsurpassed impartiality, promptness and accuracy as the presiding officer in the highest deliberative body in the state, and his unsullied, unsuspected integrity, unsuspected even by his political adversaries, establish his character as an upright and virtuous man; but "his reliance for salvation," as he has himself declared, in the most solemn of instruments, made several years previous to his decease, and in the midst of health," was solely on the merits of his Lord Jesus Christ." His life and conversation gave full and continual evidence that Christian principles had a commanding influence over his whole mind and character. He has been taken from the midst of active exertion and usefulness when he was never more dear and valued to his friends; "but the scene is closed, and we are no longer anxious lest misfortune should sully his glory; he has travelled on to the end of his journey, and carried with him an increasing weight of honour-he has deposited it safely where misfortune cannot tarnish it, where malice cannot blast it. Favoured of heaven, be departed without exhibiting the weakness of humanity!"

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

OUR correspondent from New York, who complains that the intelligence is no more complete in our abstract of the journal of the New York convention, and who accuses us of inattention," and want of 66 acumen and research," should remember that we do not profess to give, in our abstracts, information that is not contained in the reports on which they are founded. Every reader of the Gospel Advocate must have seen how much we have lamented the imperfection of the parochial returns in many parts of the Church. It is not our fault. if the returns in the diocese of New York were incomplete; and we think we may, with propriety, suggest to our New York correspondent the application of the exhortation "cast out first the beam," &c. We do not, however, agree with him, that, " if the report was imperfect, it should have been better policy to have omitted it altogether." Correct intelligence is valuable, as far as it goes, although it does not extend to all the parts upon which information is desirable, or to all parts of the Church.

There is no danger that, in consequence of the incompleteness of the returns, our abstracts shall give an inferiour and unfavourable view of the state of the Church, because the number of parishes, from which returns are received, is always stated, in connexion with the result which is given.

To show our querulous friend how little cause there is for his charge of inattention, in respect to the other article of intelligence to which he refers, we inform him, that the state of that business is not yet such as to render it practicable to give a full account of it, nor proper for the publick to interfere with it.

We have received an interesting address of a clergyman at the interment of a venerable member of the Church, which is unavoidably postponed to the next number. Several other communications are on file, and will be speedily attended to.

Clericus on clerical aberrations is on file for insertion.

"An old fashioned Churchman," " on non-conforming Churchmen," we must decline to insert. We disapprove its spirit in many points. We beg the author to favour us with articles rather on the " power of Godliness." We have not room for those of so great length on its "forms."

Remarks on Goodrich's history of the United States, by an Epis copalian of South Carolina, cannot be admitted. The occasion of the notice is not of sufficient general importance; and the whole subject tends to anger and contention.

The extracts from Horsley's charges, valuable as the thoughts of that eminent man may be, are inapplicable to the circumstances of the Church in this country.

ERRATUM.

Present Number, page 224, in the running title of some copies, før South Carolina, read Georgia.

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In a note to the review of sermons, &c. on the death of Mr. Owen, in the last January number of the Christian Observer, I perceive that notice is taken of a communication made by me to the Gospel Advocate, and inserted in the columns of your work for July, 1822. This notice is editorial; is inserted, as the editor remarks, “for the sake of correction ;" and concludes by saying "the conductors of the Gospel Advocate, we are persuaded, will thank us for furnishing them with this brief explanation in reply to their correspondent."

In what does this explanation consist? Not in denying the fact as stated in my communication, but in ascribing it to a different cause from that to which I had ascribed it. "The British and Foreign Bible Society," observes the editor of the Christian Observer, "took its bibles as they were currently and customarily issued from the authorized presses, and as they were distributed in all other quarters; among others the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge. Long before the Bible Society existed, for a period perhaps of a century and upwards, by far the greater part of the bibles printed in England had been without the marginal readings and references, and the Bible Society, in commencing its operations, only conformed to the established practice. Indeed its members had no more the power than the will to make innovations of any kind, as the two Universities and the king's printer could alone furnish them with their copies. In the course of time, however, when applications were made for bibles, with references, they were then provided; and the society's catalogue exhibits no less than four editions of this description, some of which have been several years on its list. The references are those of Blayney's 4to bible, the very standard mentioned by the American objector in common with that of 1611."

I am sorry that the respectable editor should have given me the epithet of "the American objector;" for, when I wrote that communication, nothing was farther from my thoughts than the idea of objecting to the British and Foreign, or any other Bible Society. My only design was to point out a mischievous result from an erroneous interpretation of the Bible Society's motives. I am sure the editor is too candid and sincere to deny that such an interpretation has been 30

GOSPEL ADVOCATE, VOL. III.

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