The Federal mirror — Concord, N.H., 1795-05-22 00:00:00, page 2

at the fame time would blulh and
tremble, Felix like, and with the poor
publican finite 04 his breast, and cry,
God be merciful to me, a fioner, who
have been endeavouring to misrepre
sent thy divine charter ; forgive,
Lord, forgive thy unworthy durst,
and I will reform.,
Mr. V. faya I quoted Peter, 2 Eph.
3 chapt. not willing that any should
perish, but that all thould come to re
pentance ; from which I take for
granted, that which ia by no meant
true, that God hate absolutely and un
conditionally willed, or decreed, the
salvation of all men, and fays there ia
nothing more intended by the will of
God in that place, than hit patience
and long fuffering in giving all meant
and opportunity of obtaining grace
and faivacion ; nay, so far is the apo(-
tle from suggesting the idea, that all
•men will finally be saved, that he ex
pressly asserts the contrary, verse 7th
of the fame chapter—But the heavens
and the earth which are now by the
fame word are kept io store, referred
unto fire, agaioft the day of judgment
and perdition of ungodly men —He
aff^ta that the apostle fays there will
be a number of ungodly men doom
ed to a state of perdition, which as
sertion I deny— The apostle does not
fay there are a number of ungodly
men that are doomed to perdition,
but vastly the contrary ; for he Uys
the free gift hath come on all men
onto juftification of life ; but Veritas
may fay he means but a part, but if
'it be a truth, that God is perfect io
knowledge, surely it is also a truth
that.be has decreed, or predeftinated,
every one to life, in his foo, for the
apostle fays, whom he did foreknow,
not a part of them, but whom he did
foreknow, he also did predeftinate ;
and whom also he did foreknow, he
haicalied, juftified and glorified, if the
apostle meant as he fays. „~
Mr, V. fays, what do you think
now, Mr. F. T. will you still insist
onpon't, that none can be loft ? laa L
fiver, yes, I still stand to the truth of
God, who fays he will have all men
ftved, and come unto the knowledge
of the truth ; for be fays, there is one
God and one Mediator, between him
and men, the man Christ Jefui, who
^ave himfelf a ransom for all to be
teftified in due time ; therefore, I
think I can, with the greatest propri
ety, insist upon it, that not one can be
loft, having the eternal truth of an
unerring God, to prove my assertion,
by which I conceive to ^the most
infallible evidence any one can have.
I cannot join with any one in asserting
that mankind must work out a right
eoufnefii ot their own, to appear be
fore God ; neither can I tell them to
merit their own salvation, but would
recommend the righteoufneh of Christ
to be fufficient for all ; and would ex
ert all to cruft in it, and not in their
own.
When ,fa bung upon the tree.
He was in waft extremit, .•
'Tis finish'd, the blcftSaviour cry I d,
And then he low'd bis bead and died.
The rod didrend, the earth did quale,
The fan was dark, the temple /bale,
The people ft y^b, amerced flood,
Arid cr,'d,tbis was the Son of God.
FREE THINKER.
Qtywer to NUMERUS.
See Mirror No, 130.
FOR THE MIRROR.
Messrs. Russell & Davis, c"
"{X THEN a man comes forward,
'VV and charges one of your cor
refpondenis with ^onfenfetlofs pfj
memory—affirming that which is not
true—an imposture bereft of com
rmonfeofe—an ideot, devoid of jutice,
humanity, &c. &c.—l never attempt
- to rail with him, hue change the ft
pon, and administer a little Ipecacu
anha, and a few pills, and when the
body and mind appear to be in feme
measure restored, apply a few Leni
tives, Elixir Camphire, Paregoric, a
little opium, end calm the patient
down within the bounds of Reason.—
In this situation, we will, for a mo
ment, confider Numerus, bustling
forward with hit remarks ; they are
the wisest, the witcieft, the longest,
and broadest, that ever were spread
upon paper, end therefore claim a
place immediately in your Mirror—
but I, poor I, have no such claim to
mine, let them take their course, if
they are founded upon reason, they
will be acceptable at any time——
The Scurrilities thrown out by Nume
rua, I Ihall leave upon his hand, they
are fit for nobody else.; much go&
may they do him, but where he has
charged, me with deviating from the
line of reditude, I fhsHreply :—
Numerus fays that the Old Soldier
affirmed, that the 9th number of the
Soldier was the only one he had at
tended to, but ootwifhftanding, goes
on to tell the contents of the whole.
Numerus, if you had read the piece I al
luded to, you would have found that the
author gave in it a rewofpect view of
all his writings, from which I drew
my observations ; therefore, you will
remember this Numerus, if a man an
swers or charges another wrongfully
before he reads, it is folly and shame
to him.
Numerus complains of the Old
Soldier, for faying he lerved almost
nine years in the late war, and ob
serves that every man of common
sense that ever heard of the war,
knows that the war did not continue
eight years—and further, a man who
fees out to be an imposture and ftrivei
to decieve the public, ought to have
an excellent memory, or his nose will_
be continually running into mifehief;
Elegantly expreft, Numerus, but you
should have considered when you was
charging so high, it might recoil with
double force. All historians and oth
er writers, take their data from the
19 b of April, 1775, for the com
meocement of the late war—ln the
summer of 1783, part of the troops
were difchargej ; late in the fall, we
took possession of the city of New
yoik—the British iroops delivered it
up in 1784 ; the heads of the dffer
enc departments were dilcha'gto in
'785 ; there were troop# 10 pay at
Wert Point, that belonged to the ar
my—but bring it back to the summer
of 1783, there is above eight years.
Now Numerus, where was your cal
culations or common sense ?— The
next thing Numerus complains of, is
that the Old Soldier goes on to tell,
that the burden on the Militia is no
more than it was fifty years ago ; and
no more than it ought to be fifty or a
thousand years hence—and then ob
serves, that if oppreflion reigned fifty
years ago, the Old Soldier thinks it
ought to continue a thousand years
hence, or to the end of time.—No
Numerus, I can reason on that fubj:d
—ln the firft place, I denied that any
oppression did exift,—and you, if you
could, ought to have shewn where the
oppression lay ; no< to think that the
words Idiot or Froth, were con vine
iog arguments ; they may do for
fame, but not current change for an
Old Soldier. It is an obfervarion of
a great law writer, that we had better
put up with some inconveniences, in
an old law, or eftablilbed custom,
than to alter, for experience had
taught in alterations—-we too often
tun into errors— Let us fee howi;
will opperate here ; and Numerus
had his wish, and each man of the
militia was paid three or four (hillings
per day, each day, for four days in a
year, for appearing in the field ; the
tax would amount to, at least, forty
thousand dollars per year, and this is
not all—if I have done duty for these
thirty years last past, in the militia,
and had no pay—You now come
forward and receive pay, and Tax me
to pay you, and not allow me any
thing—it would be like the faying of
being hanged, and pay forty Killings
—Further, if you work for me four
daysin my field, ought I not to re
pay it in money or labor— think of
this Numerus, and judge like an hon
est man.—l have admitted you on
the stage of reason, and don't you,
when you shrink into simple Nume
rus, fay we will pay for time to come,
but not for any past. I caution you
once more to think well on the fob,
je& ; the two cases are parallel—the
one for work done, the other employ
ed to be done— To clear up the rear
agea, it would cost the State Twelve
Hundred Thousand Dollars ; don't
be feared at the largeness of the sum,
one is as justly due as the other, and
if one is paid the other ought to be,'
—and this is not the end—Govern
ment has already paid for drums and
fifes, &c.— The next will be to arm
and equip the militia—another pretty
fare upon the people—and this is not
all, nor the worst, when the spirit of
Militare runs high, well armed and
accoutred by government—At a luc
ky time, an apt season, it would be an
easy matter for a few defigflfog men
to blow up the idle, ignorant, those
in debt, and servants against their
masters, and form an army, and fay,
pay and support us, or we will give
Law to the Land—This, or similar
was the language, Numerus, of your
friend, the Soldier ; deny it if you
can—rt ver, pretty public writer.
lam credibly informed, that the
'pay of the Militia was agitated in a
fate Assembly in Massachusetts, and
clearly rejefte. Now let us one and
all fay, go on in [ be good old way,
then there will be no taxes, no rear
ages to pay, no arming and equipping
the militia, and no fear of injury.—
The militia have hitherto done well,
and will continue so to do, provided
we go on in the good old way.
I shall now take a final farewell of
you, Numerus, after giving you a
1 piece of friendly advice, —that if you
should ever appear again in public, in
this cause, or any other, make use of
decent language—if otherwise, place
for your signature a " Ninwbammer,"
then we shall not fee darkly, as thru'
a glaft, but have you in black and
white.
AN OLD SOLDIER.
(^ request the author's candor, for the
omission of the above for two weeks, which ,as
by rcajon es its being mijlaid. Mirror.]
Essay on THUNDER.
for th# FEDERAL MIRROR.
Messrs. Editors, ~, Ll 6,
By giving the following a place in the Federal
Mirror, you will greatly oblige a well-wiJber
to you and the public, and perhaps, entertain
many of your Customers.
NOW feeing it is the opinion of maty
credulous and weak-headed persons,
(especially women) that Thunder is nothing
but the tremendous voice of GOD, (where
by many timorous adults, as well As youth,
are many times frighted beyond measure,
even to the endangering of their whole ner
vous fyftem)—l Ihall therefore give my opin
ion relative to the Secondary cause of Thun
der, after firft entertaining all my judicious
readers, with a kind of diological difeourfe,
(nearly verbatim) between myfelf and a pre
tended religions woman, in the time of a
thunder-ftbrm, which is as follows :—
As I happened one day to be overtaken by
a violent shower, in harvest time, I rode hard
to find a Shelter from the rapidity of the wind
and rain ; 1 at length reached the nearest
house, and entering the fame, I found the
good woman of the house extremely terrifi
ed, by the thunder, which accompanied the
,^ft^'P* qtyw^'r5 '^ ''^F J
cadent rain ; after the ffiower abated, and
the woman began to recover tier spirits, I '
alked tier what the thought was the cause of
Thunder ? Oh ! said the, (almost crying) it
is the voice of the Blessed God ! I tten ask
ed her if the thought God never spake, only
when it thundered ? O yes, said the, God
often (peaks to us, in a pleasant inviting
manner, but by reason of the distance be
tween God and us, God talks a great while
before we can hear ; at length he grows an
gry because we can't hear, and speaks out
with a loud and terrible voice, and then we
hear it thunder. —I then asked why God
should be angry, if we could not hear ?—
Does God require impoffibdities ? Surely
said I, if we can't hear, we can't ; and there
fore why should God be angry, because we
can't hear ?—At this, the good old woman
was greatly piqued ; and smartly replied, I
fee you are a rank Atheist, and I won't talk
with you, and so left the room. Now was
the woman's talk commendable ? I think for
one, it was not.
Now my finceie opinion is, that thunder
is nothing but the production of nature,^ e.
in a secondary line, for my opinion is, that
God created nature, and nature cause. e
vehts. As for thunder, it is nothing but
the sudden and violent meffure of the light
ning upon the air; for the nature, of air is
to afeend, and that of lightning to defeend;
so when the lightning and air meet in a vio
lent motion, the opposition is so great that
the found of the force struck by the opposite
elements, echoes to the earth, and is what
we call Thunder. As for lightning, it is
nothing but a compound of earthy and aerial
fire, for the fire being drawn from the earth
by the fun, afeends as high as the fiery re
gion, where it blends with inflammable air,
and other combuftables; where by being
continually moved by the motion of tile air,
it is refined like a body of melted gold, and
so continues in small particles dispersed in
the air, until the air begins to condense to
rain ; then all those particles of fire colled
together by reason of the opposition of the
two elements, viz. water and fire, and feeing
lightning and water are of such contrary na
tures, they cannot unite ; therefore the
lightning struggles mightily to get a passage
through the clouds, and its force upon the
air, as I said before, is what causes it to
thunder.
To prove what I have said, I will give one
or two similar instances, which none can
contradid :
ift. Doubtless you have all seen biiris vul
garly called Whipowills ; now wherMhofe
birds defeend quick in the air, after flies,
gnats, &c they make such a cracking or
rumbling noise, by the violent prerfure of
their wings upon the air, that was some
(like the atorefaid woman) to hear it in the
night, they would be ready to conclude, it
must be the voice of God, or at least some
nodurnal Angel.
2d. It has likewise been observed, near
where comets, fire-balls, &c. have fallen,
that during the time of their falling, there
was a great rumbling, which is only the pres
sure of the comet, &c. upon the air.
D. L. Philo.
Northfield, May ift, 1795.
— — —
CONCORD, May ,2, 1795.
SENATORS.
By the votes ret urned for Senators, it ap
pears the following gentlemen are chofen—
for Diftrid No. 1. Moses Leavit. 2. Nathan
iel Gilman. 6. Ebenezer Smith. 7. William
Gordon. 8. James Flanders. 10. Daniel
Newcomb, Esquires.
Candidates for Diftria No. 3. John Bell
and Joseph Blanchard, Efqr's. 4. Joseph
Cilley& Michael M'Clary, Efqr's. ;. John
M'Durfee and John Waldron, Efqr's. 9.
Charles Barrett & Ephraim Hartwell, Efqr's. '^
11. Amos Shepherd & Samuel Stevens, Efqs>
12. Moses Baker and Moses Little, Efqs.
Married, at Newburyport, Toppan Web
ster, Esq. of Chester, to Miss Sally Brown,
daughter of Capt Brown of the former place.
Died, at Newhaven, (Conn.) Rev. Dr-
Stiles, President of Yale College.
BY LAST EVENING's MAIL.
Foreign Intelligence.
Hamburgh, March g. Itfy confidently
averted, that the Empress of Russia
intends taking an adive part agaioft
France the enluing campaign. For this
purpose, her troops lately in Poland,
are advancing towards South Prussia;
and we are given to understand that
the will not foffer the King of Pruffia'
to make peace— With 80,000 of her
vaffah, fe may perhaps change she
face of war, which has heretofore been
covered with gloom. 't
SPANISH VICTORS
London, M^rcb 18,g A packet is ar-'
rived at Falmouth, in three days from